Hi Birders, At a party last night a friend showed me a picture taken on his mobile of the ‘big tame mystery bird’ which has been drinking from his swimming pool in Northside Alice Springs: a Pheasant Coucal! This is interesting: ‘normal’ Pheasant Coucal distribution only comes within 700km of Alice Springs but in 2010 Chris Watson heard one calling in banks of the Hugh River 60km west of Alice, in September Barbara Watkins and I found one at Burt Creek 60km north of Alice and in mid October Bruce Wedderburn had one down near Erldunda 170km south of here. Now this bird has turned up in Alice Springs itself and is reportedly quite settled. Pheasant Coucal is a pleasant addition to the Alice Springs garden birds list. There is still no sign of any Koel this season but they may be out there- at least two chicks were fledged in Alice last summer. If any birders see either of these species while in the Red Centre this summer please inform myself and Chris Watson (via http://comebirdwatching.blogspot.com/).
By the way, I still have some Scopacs left so if Santa brings you a scope for Christmas you might want to drop by my website and check them out.
Cheers Mark Carter www.desertlife.com.au 0447358045 ===============================
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