Bird Watching: Piccies Vol. 25, 1 by kennedyh

kennedyh wrote:
Janet, I am loving your pictures, taking me back to all the familiar birds of my childhood in England. I enjoy hearing the call of the Wood Pigeon on a lot of English television programmes, although we don't here or nearly as often as the cackle of the Magpies. My mother always used to say that the wood pigeons say "Take two coos taffy, Take two coos taffy, Take".

I had a stroke of luck the other day. When I lived in Tasmania, I used to see and hear the Pallid Cuckoo a great deal, but they seem to be a great deal less common here in Victoria. Just recently I have been hearing one in Mathison Park, where we walk several times a week. The other day, I heard the Pallid Cuckoo's distinctive call and Fay spotted it in some gum trees, in a paddock just across a fence from the track we were on. I had a large dog on a lead (not ours we were walking it for a neighbour), so I had to get Fay to take the dog. I then crawled through the fence, but being on the wrong side of the bird light wise, I had to try and circle round to get into position for a picture. I almost got within range, but it flew to the next tree. I approached again and again it flew to another tree. Before I could begon to approach it again, it flew away up the paddock out of site.
I heard its call again, and just as I was about to abandon the chase, it flew back, landed on the nearest tree in full sunlight and sat there seeming to say"go on, get your pictures over and leave me in peace".
Here is my first ever picture of an adult Pallid Cuckoo: