G'day Birding-Aus'ers, hope you all had a great turn-of-the-century.
On Boxing day, during an early morning walk through some remnant
bushland along Bulimba Creek, Brisbane, I heard at close quarters a
couple of birds calling in dense para grass on the creek bank. I'm sure
they were rails or crakes of some persuasion.The calls were likely to be
alarm/contact calls in response to my presence.
The calls were: a short 'pick' or 'peek'; followed by a series of
separate notes 'chich chich chich..' each separated by an interval about
as long as the duration of the individual notes. Each note was short and
had a sharp, metallic quality. The series of 5-6 notes rose in pitch
toward the end of the sequence, giving it a rather peevish sound.
I've subsequently listened to some taped calls of Buff-banded Rail,
Bush-hen, Lewin's Rail and Baillon's, Spotless and Australian Spotted
Crakes, all of which are possibles for the site. The calls I heard most
closely resemble some recorded Lewin's Rail calls, but not closely
enough to be conclusive. They were nothing like recorded calls of BB
Rail (perhaps the most likely candidate - they are common in suitable
habitat all over SEQ) nor Bush-hen, also quite likely at the site, or
the three crakes.
Can anyone shed light on this little mystery for me?
Richard
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Richard Johnson
Roma District
Tel: (07) 4622 4266 Fax: (07) 46 22 4151
E-mail:
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