Where I live, it can get fairly noisy, but with the right sort of noise….bird calls. I am woken each morning by all sorts of birds, some of whom have nicer calls than others, but all are welcome parts of my day, and during the day, I hear the calls so often, that I only notice them if they’re not there! Of course there are other noises too, typical town noises that come and go, traffic noises, lawn mowers, police sirens, even the sound of the air ambulance helicopter coming in to the local hospital on occasion.
However, one day, I noticed a new noise. I’d never heard it before, and it was very strange. Spooky even. Goodness I thought, what on earth is it? I went outside, trying to work out what it was. I worked out it was coming from the wilderness behind the church across the road, so it was unlikely to be a new type of siren, or a machine. It has to be a bird or animal, I thought. I could remember as a child going to the pictures (movies) and hearing jungle sounds in the “Tarzan” movies….you know when Tarzan is swinging through the trees after the baddies. (I never could work out whether those jungle noises were supposed to be birds or some sort of monkeys.) This is what this “thing” sounded like. Well, I thought, does this mean there’s a bird of paradise that’s got lost, or a monkey on the prowl?? This led me to think of another movie I had once seen (as an adult), called “Outbreak”, where a monkey escaped, and spread some really nasty virus amongst the human population, which of course killed almost everyone till our hero found the antidote…argh! So, trying to think sensible thoughts, I went inside, but I still heard the call from time to time, and I knew I wouldn’t be happy till I found it what that noise was!
The next day I was out doing some gardening, and the noise started again. I walked across the road, and headed in its general direction. A little way into the wilderness (treading carefully and watching for snakes) I was able to work out which tree it was in, and walking around the tree, I could see right at the top, a black blob with feathers. Right, that’s helpful. Just then along came a wattlebird and moved threateningly towards it. I was able to tell it was considerably bigger than a wattlebird, it was black, or at least dark, and it makes a woeful sound. So home I went, forgetting the garden for now, and out came the bird books. I went through them, and was able to eliminate quite a few types of birds with the scant information I had, and studied the few possibilities. After a bit more investigation, I had the culprit. A male Common Koel. It’s a black bird, its glossy feathers shot through with blue and green, with red eyes. Of course from where I was looking at it, there was no way I could see its eye colour, and I couldn’t see how attractive its feathers were either. It’s a type of cuckoo, and very solitary, and shy. They are very hard to see. They migrate from the north of Australia during spring and summer, and head for cooler climes to breed. And they make a woeful noise!
It seems they only call like this in breeding season. The male calls for a mate, and the female, using a different call, answers him. Once they find each other, go off and lay their eggs in some poor unsuspecting bird’s nest, all is quiet once more. Just my luck I thought, I have a bird who’s been rejected, or is the only koel in town, or is just in the wrong place! He’s been calling for a week or so now, I’m hoping he’ll give up and move on. I found a picture of a female, so I’ve been keeping a look out for her as well…perhaps I can introduce them?
But at least I know what he is, and I know he’s just looking for love…..even if it is in the wrong place.
Mamaroo's Diary 