As we know from the recent COG survey, there are different views about what people like to read about on this chatline. Some people like to know about bins and dogs, others not so much. Whatever, at 7am today, having
done the early dog walk and put up the bins, I was idly snapping about a dozen lorikeets in a pink ironbark on the verge in Brockman St when I heard an explosive kek-kek-kek from a euc in Wylie St. This was a female koel responding to nearby wattlebirds, making
a ‘complaint call’. The bird flew off and I tracked it to about 100m away in Finniss Crescent, at the top of a pin oak. After a few keks it calmed down. I watched it for about 10 minutes. It was giving occasional soft ‘oo-ers’, a sound that might also be
rendered ‘wirra’, or perhaps even ‘koel’, but not repeated as a sequence. The bird was turning its head while calling as if sounding out the neighbourhood. I had a clear view of the tree and nearby trees and no other koels were seen or heard. This is the
first koel seen or heard in the neighbourhood so far this season.
