A sighting in the garden today: brown cuckoo doves. I’ve seen them here before, startlingly portly long-tailed pigeons, hanging out in the neighbours’ tangle of tall trees. I spotted at least three today, one futilely hopping from branch to branch, doggedly followed by a stouter fella: I guess it’s breeding season.
I felt tremendously smug when I first saw this rainforest bird above my washing line. I should have known better, having read Tim Low’s New Nature not so long ago. This is one bird doing alright out in the Anthropocene. It’s a winner.
Brown cuckoo doves are spreading south from their usual stomping grounds. I’m not surprised. If I were a tropical bird, I wouldn’t mind it round Sydney at the moment: third warmest June on record, more than 2 degrees warmer than the longterm average – balmy!
And they don’t mind weeds either. Apparently they relish regrowth around roads and logged forest, and lantana and wild tobacco suit them down to the ground. Witness this shot of a cuckoo dove snaffling fruit from our embarrassingly giant large-leafed privet. Privet tree. Yes, yes, we are going to kill it off and chop it down – the Round-Up is in the cupboard… But reading Low has given me pause. When we poison our oversized weed tree, will we lose our nifty rainforest critters too?
I’ve been busy travelling and catching up on other projects so I am behind in my commenting. I’ve never seen these birds in my backyard so am rather envious. Like you, I have a few overly large “weeds” but since they seem to be very popular with some of the rarer native birds I’m hesitant about removing them. I always enjoy your entertaining and informative backyard updates. Thank you! 🙂