At 13:45 today I heard loud
wurrow-wurrow calls interspersed with brassy keek-keek-keeking and went out onto the front porch while the birds called about once every 30 seconds. Nonetheless, it took me about two minutes to locate a female perched in the depths of our large
White Cedar not 10 metres from where I stood. Both calls continued until suddenly, a male I’d not noticed burst from the tree and flew away. I watched the female as she continued calling for about another three minutes at which point I needed to go indoors
and never heard or located her afterwards.
This is only the third sighting I’ve had of koels in our garden in over 30 years.
At 06:00 today, while travelling slowly along Southern Cross Drive in the Holt/Higgins area, I had frequent glimpses of Red Wattlebirds moving among eucalypts on the median
strip and got a feeling they may be breeding there. Maybe there’s a connection with those glimpses and the koel calling in our place which is fairly close by.
John Layton
Holt.
