Hi All.
Our tranquil holiday at Avoca Beach in the Basin has been terribly
disrupted by the far-carrying, piercing, human-baby like screams and begging of
two fledgling Channel-billed Cuckoos, morning and afternoon, letting up for
only an hour or two in the middle of the day. Plus up to five, raucous, adult
CBCs and angry pursuing Currawongs and Noisy Miners flying through the trees.
The young CBCs are carrying on as I type, they sound like a desperate
human child being strangled very noisily. Their step-parent Currawongs are
frantically trying to shut them up, but even feeding them every four or five
minutes is not enough. The "babies" are fully fledged and flying, follow their
feeders from tree to tree, at one stage a Currawong was chased along Fairscene
Crescent at full speed by one of the "chicks", I still hear one of them
hundreds of metres away, but it keeps coming back.
Today is New Years Day, and this has been going on since Christmas Eve.
The squawking is unignorable. Even on overcast and rainy days we are driven
out, to walk away along the beach, or go shopping just to get away from the
noise.
Plus begging Magpie babies,young King Parrots chasing and abusing
their parents around the block after being abandoned to the big wide world. .
At about five in the afternoon the local SC Cockatoos add their bit for
about an hour.
Noisy Miners are a constant, but so relatively low decibel as to be
totally unobtrusive. A couple of Satin Bowerbirds growl around and add
interest. A Scrub Turkey lives in our jungle.(garden), flies up onto the
verandah looking for leftovers. A beautiful bird, black body, bright red head
and very yellow wattle around its neck. The Dollarbird looks good too.
Two competing Kookaburra choruses wake us at what they think is dawn,
and, the dreaded black night bird Eudynamys scoloacea, also known, among many
expletives, as the Common Koel, is out there as well, day and night. I can hear
it right now.. Fortunately it has been cool enough to keep the windows closed
at night, not that it makes much difference. My wife actually uses her
earplugs,(left over from when I used to snore) to try to sleep in.,
An ornithologically unforgettable festive season.
Cheers
Michael.
(Avoca Beach is on the Central Coast of NSW)
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