I remember having lunch at Lacey Ck in the Mission Beach area in 1997.
A cassowary was lurking behind a park sign [50 metres away] and was
completely overlooked by a group of German tourists who passed within a
couple of metres of it. I managed to drop a cherry tomato and this
chap was over in a flash, and quickly polished off the remainder of the
tomatoes. It was an interesting experience eyeballing a cassowary
[they have very large eyes] at close quarters, knowing how lethal their
feet can be.
Regards, Laurie.
On Monday, December 19, 2005, at 05:10 PM, Whittaker, Mark wrote:
The resident brolga at the burketown caravan park (up in the Qld gulf
country) is a bit intimidating.
mark whittaker
-----Original Message-----
From: Mick Roderick
Sent: Monday, 19 December 2005 1:08
To: Dean Cutten; Birding_Aus _Server
Subject: Re: [BIRDING-AUS] Tameness of Australian Birds
An unusual 'tame bird' I once encountered was about 7 years ago at
Kynuna - in the heart of Matilda country in NW Qld, and sporting one
of the driest, most barren landscapes I've seen. Here, an extremely
voracious Brolga would literally snatch the food out of your hands as
you took it to your mouth.
Quite novel, but a little disconcerting as it pretty much stood above
me when I was seated. Anyone else had this experience with Brolga's?
Mick
Dean Cutten <> wrote:
AusBirders,
The recent thread on the tameness of rails has prompted me to report a
general observation on some Australian birds around the area I live in.
After having spent 14 years living in Alabama, USA returning in 2003 I
have
noted
that many Australian birds are much quieter than those I observed in
AL. I
am mainly refering to those birds approached in a backyard environment
but
my observations are not confined to that area. It was rare to get
close to
birds that frequented our backyard in AL (Red-breasted Nuthatch was
sometimes an exemption to this) whereas here in my current location a
number
of species can be approached. The
ultimate here is that I have had 3 backyard species feed out of my
hand,
namely, Silvereye, White-browed Scrubwren and Superb F-W with the
Silvereye
commanding the most respect from the other 2 species. The Gray
Shrike-Thrush has taken food just inches from my hand. Several
Honeyeater
species and Striated Thornbill will allow you to approach them quite
closely
while they are feeding in the shrubs. I have had a Gray Fantail land
on my
leg while sitting in a chair.
In the field I have noticed that frequenting the same areas regularly
some
species don't fly off as quickly when walking up to them. One species
in
particularly that does this is the Purple Swamphen. The Australian
Magpie is
another species that quickly becomes less intimitated the more
frequently
you walk past them.
Dean Cutten
Victor Harbor, SA
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