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Hi all,
I also saw my first Fan-tailed Cuckoo for the
season today at my home in Riddells Creek (near Mt Macedon, northwest of
Melbourne). I heard it calling early this morning so I went outside to
check it out. I got good, but very short views of it before a car scared it
away. Making my way back, I heard another one, possibly two, calling a fair
distance away. I am pretty sure that this/these birds weren't the same bird
that I had observed, as the calling seemed to come from the opposite direction
in which the bird flew.
My records for Fan-tailed Cuckoos are fairly
similar to the ones Philip Veerman found for Canberra (though they are only
based over one year). I notice an influx of birds in late August to early
September, from then numbers increse sharply to about October/November and then
seem to dissappear altogether from December on. This was also the same trend for
other cuckoo species, such as Pallid and Horsfield's Bronze which are regular
around my area. I'm sure some people would have a few records of Fan-tailed
Cuckoos during the other months of the year, but my guess is that most birds
migrate north from southern Victoria from about January/February to early
August.
Isaac Clarey
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