Goodbye to Rainbirds and Stormbirds: Cuckoos Fly North for Winter
A change in season means different sounds in the garden
Although the Coral Sea cyclone season ends officially on 30 April, I am going to make the call right now. Goodbye, swirly things. Hello, dry season.
I live in the Wet Tropics region of Far North Queensland where ‘dry’ means ‘not as soggy as it is for the rest of the year’. Things are never quite as cut and…er... Some dry seasons see rain into the middle of the year. In one particularly damp June, I was standing outside the post office, taking off my muddy shoes before going inside, when a local dairy farmer said to me, ‘After the drought of 1966, I swore I’d never complain about the rain again, but…’
My reason for making this not very brave pronouncement about the weather has little to do with the rain and a lot to do with (relative) the peace and quiet in the garden. Pacific (Eastern) Koels and Channel-billed Cuckoos have packed their bags and headed north to New Guinea for winter.
Over summer, a pair of koels took up residence in the garden. I heard them more often than I saw them, but when I did see them what a treat it was — the…
