In Defence of Crows

[old man emu]

This is a koel. Knew the sound, but not the name

Most koels migrate north from Australia for the autumn and winter months, often to New Guinea, and return again in the spring. During the breeding season they are found throughout northern and eastern areas of Australia, with some reported sightings as far south as the Victorian border. Their numbers in urban areas, including Sydney and Brisbane, are reported to have increased in recent years.

 

Due to its conspicuous arrival each spring, which typically coincides with warmer weather and an increase in rain and storms, the koel is often referred to as the "rain bird" or "storm bird". 

[spacesailor]

Thanks for that, I now know what that noise is, that we hear daily.

Without sighting the bird.

I have seen the bird but not when  making the noise.

spacesailor

[Yenn]

Only the male is black. The female is a grey colour mainly.

[spacesailor]

I live and learn !, Will tell the wife.

spacesailor

[willedoo]

The koels are a brood parasite; they do to the pewees what the channel billed cuckoo does to the crows. Every breeding season here you hear the noisy channel bills squarking and being chased by crows.

 

Speaking of cuckoos, one of the oddest movies I've seen is 'The Cuckoo' (Kukushka). Set in WW2, most of the movie is three actors and one set. Two men, opposing Finnish and Soviet soldiers, end up stranded at a Sami woman's reindeer farm. It's a Russian film, so the Russian soldier speaks Russian without subtitles. The other two speak their respective languages Finnish and Sami with Russian subtitles. In the movie, all three can only speak and understand their own languages. The movie name has double meaning as the Finn is a sniper, and the woman's name Anni means cuckoo in Sami. Confusing linguistics aside, it's a good movie.

[Yenn]

Not all cuckoos are parasites, here we have the Pheasant Coucal, a true cuckoo who hatches its own young. It looks like an English pheasant, has trouble flying and gives a series of calls "woop, woop, woop" so I call it the Woop woop bird and people know what it is.

The bigger Cuckoo is the Channel Billed Cuckoo, mentioned by willedoo. Commonly called the storm bird, because it gives its mournful call supposedly before rain, but I think t should be called the Liar Bird, because we get the call but not the rain.

[willedoo]

4 minutes ago, Yenn said:

Not all cuckoos are parasites, here we have the Pheasant Coucal, a true cuckoo who hatches its own young. It looks like an English pheasant, has trouble flying and gives a series of calls "woop, woop, woop" so I call it the Woop woop bird and people know what it is.

The bigger Cuckoo is the Channel Billed Cuckoo, mentioned by willedoo. Commonly called the storm bird, because it gives its mournful call supposedly before rain, but I think t should be called the Liar Bird, because we get the call but not the rain.

Yenn, there's a night bird here that I call the woop woop bird, but I don't know if it's the same one you mention. This one lets out a series of woop, woop, woop sounds but increasing in speed and pitch. Probably about 8 or 10 woops in one block. Also at night we get the swamp pheasant. It does a series of very low baritone woops.

[willedoo]

There's only one junior crow in the brood at my place from last year's breeding season. Probably the only survivor after the Channel Billed Cuckoos have had their way. I noticed this afternoon that the young one is at the transition period. He constantly makes the begging call and is starting to feed himself. He has the capability to feed himself, but the father crow is still partly feeding him, probably to shut him up. It won't be long now before the young one is fully independent and I can get some peace and quiet.

[onetrack]

The crows around here have been watching my mangoes get ripe, and talking between themselves about them. One sits on a light pole crossbar about 200M up the street where he's got a good view of the mangoes, and talks to his mates in the trees nearby.

 

I reckon the conversation goes, "CAHHH!, CAHHH!, CAHHHHHHHH! (I can see the mangoes getting ripe!) - and his mates reply, "CAHHHHKK!, CAHHHHHK!, CAHHHHHHHHKKKK!! (when are we going to land in that yard, and scoff some?).

The reply is something like CAHHK!, CAHHHHK!, CAHHHHHHKK! (I think they're being watched by the humans! We'll have to be quiet!).

 

So, yesterday morning, SWMBO wakes up at 5:30AM, looks out the bedroom window (we can see the whole mango tree only 8M away, in the front yard) -and there's a bloody crow, on the ground in the front yard, checking out the mangoes!

He's flown into this really tight landing area without a sound, and is checking to see if there's any dropped mangoes - or which of the lower mangoes are close enough to the ground for him to scoff! (funnily enough, they never land in the actual tree, they land on the ground and eat any dropped mangoes, or reach up and scoff the mangoes within their pecking reach).

 

I race out the front door, flapping my hands and yelling, "CAAAKKKK!! CAAAKKK!! CAAAKKK!!", and the crow absolutely craps himself, and takes off.

 

Hopefully, he'll spread the word amongst his mates that any attempt to get any mangoes, means the humans come flying out of the house, because they're watching the mangoes all the time!

 

I did this last time the crows raided the low-hanging mangoes (I caught 2 in the act, and they absolutely crapped themselves) - and once I made it clear I was watching the mangoes (and them), they never bothered trying to scoff mangoes again.

[red750]

I played a prank on a crow yesterday. My daughter wanted a slurpie from 7-eleven, so I pulled up near the door, close to a garbage bin. A crow was  sitting on the edge of the bin, pulling at a paper bag. I wound down the window and called 'CAAARRRRRKK!' The crow looked around. Again I called, 'CAAARRRRRKK!' . The crow flew onto the cage of BBQ bottles nearby, walked across, then flew onto the party ice machine. I called 'CAAARRRRRKK!' once more. It twisted its head this way and that looking for another crow. Again I called 'CAAARRRRRKK!' and it flew off.

 

 

 

 

[willedoo]

It's good to know I'm not the only one crazy enough to talk to crows.

[spacesailor]

And magpies! .

spacesailor

[ClintonB]

My tree beside the front door is home to returning willy wagtails every year, 5 broods this year, inc a clutch of 4 eggs.

They have become very tame and seem to know we are safe. We can photograph and check the nest with no worries. Mamma bird sits on the branch and let's us. If I leave the light on too late she calls out until it's turned off, then silence. The babies usually return for their nesting. There is quite a bit of difference in each bird when you are that close and can distinguish between them. I watch them closely when they are ready to leave. Once they fly they don't return to the nest. They go through a week or so of training with the parents around our yard and stick close by. Then off they go until next year. I enjoy watching them go through the process time and time again. 3 of my 5 broods are pictured on or just before leaving day. 

[old man emu]

I hope that  you pay them in kind for the pleasure they give you!

[Marty_d]

I've also like crows.

We've got a lot of roadkill around here, and they do a great job of cleaning it up.

They've got an uncanny ability to judge the speed of oncoming cars, and use the minimum effort required to hop out of the way.

[Yenn]

Willedoo. That woop woop bird sounds like a Nightjar. Not actually hearing it and also not knowing where home is to you that is just a guess.

My first thought was for a Barking Owl,but the speed and pitch are pretty constant, the other thought was a Frogmouth, but they don't vary much in pitch.

We just had a family of four Tawny Frogmouths perch for a few days right alongside our house. Hard to see as they are well camouflaged. They tend to chuckle away in the daytime, or at least the young ones do and they also move around more than the adults.

[willedoo]

37 minutes ago, Yenn said:

Willedoo. That woop woop bird sounds like a Nightjar. Not actually hearing it and also not knowing where home is to you that is just a guess.

My first thought was for a Barking Owl,but the speed and pitch are pretty constant, the other thought was a Frogmouth, but they don't vary much in pitch.

We just had a family of four Tawny Frogmouths perch for a few days right alongside our house. Hard to see as they are well camouflaged. They tend to chuckle away in the daytime, or at least the young ones do and they also move around more than the adults.

Thanks Yenn, that's jogged the memory. I remember now having once identified the sound as a Nightjar, but had forgotten it. For a lot of years I didn't know what it was.

 

One sound some people attribute to the Frogmouth is really the little Boobook Owl. I'd always been led to believe it was the Mopoke, but after reading it was the Boobook Owl, I heard the noise one night and went out with the torch. It was a Boobook Owl for sure. They're funny birds. When you shine the torch at them, they'll keep up their call while doing 1/8th. turns on the branch, and sit still again when they have their back fully turned to you.

[old man emu]

35 minutes ago, willedoo said:

When you shine the torch at them, they'll keep up their call while doing 1/8th. turns on the branch, and sit still again when they have their back fully turned to you.

That's a bird that doesn't like to be in the limelight.

[Yenn]

What produced limelight?

[old man emu]

8 minutes ago, Yenn said:

What produced limelight?

 

Genesis 1: 1-5

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 

4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 

5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

 

Limelight  is a type of stage lighting once used in theatres and music halls. An intense illumination is created when an oxyhydrogen flame is directed at a cylinder of quicklime (calcium oxide).The limelight effect was discovered in the 1820s by Goldsworthy Gurney based on his work with the "oxy-hydrogen blowpipe".

[spacesailor]

And horse drawn coaches had Calcium ( carbide ) lamps, then bicycles had them too, So did trains at one time, long before my history began.

spacesailor

Edited January 30, 2021 by spacesailor
Missed word

[onetrack]

I can remember carbide lamps! They were the favourite for the miners lamp in my day!

[spacesailor]

SShuSs, your showing your age !.

spacesailor

[willedoo]

9 minutes ago, onetrack said:

I can remember carbide lamps! They were the favourite for the miners lamp in my day!

My Grandfather had a Hupmobile which he bought new in 1923. It has a carbide lamp fitted to it, on the side near the windscreen from memory. It also has standard electric bulb headlights so I'm guessing the carbide lamp was fitted as an after market accessory. Maybe a backup if the lights fail.

[onetrack]

You just can't trust that new-fangled electrickery stuff!

 

Funnily enough, electric starters were introduced on 1912 model Cadillacs - and many cars had them by 1919.

 

I wonder if any of the vehicles fitted with electric starters, also had carbide lamps fitted as backups?