Good news for us here is that our male Cassowary is back, he left June 24 to go on the nest, and reappeared Sept 22 with 3 tiny stripy chicks, after a rather longer absence than usual. As always, one chick is more inquisitive than the others, I was there taping and photographing them this morning and the chick came over to peer up at me. Taping the peeping calls has been an exercise in frustration, as noisy roadworks began yesterday when I was recording, and today the gas man started banging cylinders about. I am trying to get the low trisyllabic male departure call as well as the quiet peeping contact calls of the babies. The female is also around almost daily, and interacted quite peaceably with the male and the chicks yesterday, often the male gets agitated if she comes too close at this stage. Last year he had 3 chicks also, but they disappeared overa 6 week period one by one, probably coincident with the two huge amethysrtine pythons that arrived the day the chicks came in! The chicks never looked particularly healthy either last year, let’s hope for a result this time.
Phil Gregory www. cassowary-house.com. au ===============================
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