Ben Cruachan - natural history

When I think of our Australian birds, there is to my mind one that stands out as the most iconic of them all, the Laughing Kookaburra, or Kooka for short. The largest of our kingfishers, their call is one of the aural experiences in the bird world, and perhaps no-one described it better than the late Graham Pizzey, and I quote from his field guide. “Voice: famed “laugh”: staccato ‘kook-kook-kook’ slowing to chuckles, taken up by group, answered by others” Now, Graham put “laugh” into quotes, emphasising that it’s not a laugh at all, but simply the bird’s call, but you know, I have my doubts. Anyone who’s spent time wandering about in the bush and has tripped over a log, had their hat knocked off by a branch, or got hopelessly snarled up in scrub, would surely have had the experience of hearing kookaburras start “laughing” as if it was the biggest joke they’d ever seen. It’s happened to me so many times in so many situations that I refuse to believe that it’s only coincidence!
I was over at the golf course yesterday with Gouldiae, trundling around in a golf buggy identifying the various tree species growing in this picturesque bush course, when we spotted this one perched on a branch, scanning the ground with eagle eye in the characteristic manner of the species.

Their diet includes lizards, small snakes, and insects, and they’re a common sight along the roadsides, perched on power lines keeping an eye out for movement on the ground below. Years ago when we had a place on the east coast, we had many a laugh watching kookas extracting the big scrub worms from the ground. We’d see one drop down from one of the mahogany gums, drive its bill into the black sandy soil, pause, then pull, drawing a couple of inches of worm from its hole, pause, pull, pause, pull, until it would be at full stretch backwards, sitting on its tail feathers. A last tug would do the trick and it would be off to a perch to consume the eight or nine inches of juicy worm. They get very used to people around camp grounds, and if you’re having a barbecue, you’d better keep tabs on the sausages or risk having them being carried off, probably to peals of laughter from an appreciative audience.