Recently, (5/07) with a group of local birdwatchers, I had a fantastic day
learning
the calls of the many Fruit-Doves and Pigeons of Northern Rivers, NSW. I had
previously listened to the BOCA tapes and tried to remember the different
Oooms, Woops, Wooos and various other strange noises that all sounded great
in my lounge room, but were no help at all out in the rainforest with the
sounds coming from way up there in the canopy from all different directions
(no portable recorder).
So today there were local people around with that all important ingredient
"local knowledge" and keen ears. We started off in a place of local ill
repute, but never-the-less an excellent remnant of the Big Scrub. Undeterred
by the occasional condom wrapper on the ground we started off chasing some
of those elusive fruit-dove/pigeon sounds and eventually had fantastic views
of a
pair of Rose-crowned Fruit-Doves sitting only 3 meters above ground in full
sunlight, this was only my second sighting of this species and far better
than the previous one. Everybody had great views and (I think) I've finally
learned the call. They were feeding on some small dark berries thought to be
Privet species.
Later we went to another 18 hectare rainforest remnant and though the light
was fading and the sky heavily overcast we tried valiantly to see some of
the many species calling. We SAW Emerald Dove (not seen by me for a
long time), White-headed Pigeon, Topknot Pigeons, Brown Cuckoo-Dove, but
HEARD another four species; namely Superb Fruit Dove, Rose-crowned Fruit
Dove, Wonga Pigeon and Bar-shouldered Dove. With a total of eight species
in a very small area I feel it well worth mentioning , the only one missing
was the Woompoo Fruit-Dove.
I believe I have now got the calls more or less in my head but if I don't
get out there again in the next few weeks to refresh they will all get
muddled up again.
Other interesting species seen or heard were Regent Bowerbird, Green
Catbird, Little Shrike-thrush, Large-billed Scrubwren and a possible
Logrunner heard
Hope this isn't too boring for you experts!!!
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