Last night around midnight I heard a large flock of Little Corellas fly over Marrickville – anyone encountered this before? Cas
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We had large numbers of Corellas, both Little and Long-billed, roosting next door for a short period. One night there came the chilling (to a roosting Corella) call of a Powerful Owl. Have you ever heard the reaction of roosting birds to a Powerful Owl call? They give short alarm calls that leave you in no doubt that it is a fearful sound to them. I suggest that not all Powerful Owls announce their presence by a call and an attack would certainly put the flock to the air in the middle of the night. An inadvertent fright due to the presence of a possum may also send a panic through a flock of high roosting birds perhaps???
Regards
Allan
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Cas,
There is a large summer population of Little Corellas in Sydney’s Inner West (I reported a few times: they usually are around from the 1st/2nd week of January to some time in April). There is a roost at War Memorial Park, Leichhardt (Catherine and Moore St). I never counted them (I should), but my impression is that there are approximately 200 around dusk and much fewer later in the night (11pm). Maybe they fly from a dusk roost to a night roost later in the night? (Similar to what corvids do). If this is true, it may explain the midnight flights. February 2010, Nathan Ruser made a similar observation to yours and reported it on Birding-Aus.
Cheers,
Nikolas