Waking up with the birds

Press, 23 June 1981, Page 14

Waking up with the birds

Llywecn Couper writes again from Australia. . . All over the world birds seem to make a noise when they wake up and when they go to bed. If you live close to trees you will hear blackbirds or thrushes singing loudly as the sun rises. Mynah birds often gather at dusk in a favourite pine or -macrocarpa tree and always seem to squabble before bedtime. • Australian birds seem to be noisier still. At dusk at a place, called Bribie Island in Queensland huge black crows start “arking” and swooping onto their chosen branches

and only once it is dark do they stop their loud deep quack. In the morning they start up again and other birds like kookaburras and common birds, like blackbirds wait for a gap to get their chance to sing.However the strangest birds that try to be alarm clocks arc the brightly-col-oured lorikeets and parakeets. At Noosa there is a caravan park set amongst a stand of very old tall trees. They look like gums. At 5 a.m. when it is still dark the birds, suddenly start to. sing and chatter as if someone

has given the order for assembly. The noise is deafening and only the local people can sleep through this loud “alarm clock.” Exactly one hour later they abruptly stop and there is peace at last. Stranger still is their afternoon peformance. At 4 p.m., wet or fine they start a “goirig-to-bed” commotion and the same squawking and squealing of thousands of birds starts all over again. Visitors stand under the trees trying to find out what is making the noise as they are fiard to see. They have to shout if they want to talk as these rascals make very noisy preparations for bed. One hour later, like magic, they are silent and life is back to normal until the next morning, and the next alarm.

Sffiyix'ccn Coiipet