Hi Trevor and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators. There are a few zoos in the UK with Kooikaburras on their lists but I think it's unlikely one has escaped. If Green Woodpecker has been knocked into touch, I think Richie's idea of Grey Heron is a possibility, they really can make some weird calls.
I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.
Thank you for the warm welcome and I just hope that the bird is going to stay in the area long eough for me to lay my eyes on it or record it, as I'd hate to leave this as an open mystery.
Personally, I do think it must be an escapee kookaburra from a zoo, as I'm just minutes from the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, that I know for certain, do have a contingent of birds. I guess it might be worth contacting them, to see if they have had any escape recently.
Talking about escaped birds, has reminded me of an exceptional episode of my life, that I hope you'll find interesting.
I was once driving through a village in Malta and noticed a Snowy owl stood in the middle of a side road. Luckily it didn't move in the time it took me to stop and drive back to check that my eyes weren't deceiving me. Sure enough, to my astonishment, it was a Snowy owl and to try and prevent it getting hit by a car or shot, I attempted to catch it in an upturned cooler bag. Sounds impossible and insane for so many reasons I know but with regards to the insanity of trying to catch it in such a flimsy bag, it was either that or nothing, as that was all I had with me.
My first attempt failed, as it took flight just as I tried to bag it but to my even greater surprise and glee, it only flew about 20 meters or so round a corner and was once again sitting in the road, as I discovered it there. From the fact that it didn't fly very far and as it was seriously out of it's intended habitat and therefore comfort zone (plus it seemed to be out of breath), I concluded that it was very weak, so I tried to bag it again. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, just as I approached, the bird took flight again but this time only managed a few meters of flight. The birds limited flight and obvious exhaustion was making me begin to feel hopeful, that I'd eventually bag it, so I approached the bird for a third time. This time the bird just stayed on the ground and made aggressive gestures, with it's hooked and deadly looking beak, so I pounced on it as quickly as possible and sure enough it was third time lucky.
The bird was 18 inches tall and just fitted under the VERY FLIMSY dual layer PLASTIC bag, but it obviously wasn't happy, about being inside it and started trying to scythe it's way out with it's beak and talons. Now catching it had been a major challenge but how to keep it caught and transport it into my car, while it was fighting for it's freedom, was probably the challenge of all challenges but after asking locals for assistance and obtaining some rope, I managed to make the plastic bag a bit more robust and secure and I did manage to get it into the front passenger foot well of the hire car.
The next part was potentially very frightening and rather stupid of me when I look back, as it could have ended in a very nasty way but although I was aware of that at the time, I still took the risk in order to save the bird.
The purpose of my visit to Malta, was to see my daughter and my 2 young grandchildren and I (alone) had been left in charge of my grandchildren, who were in the car with me at the time. My granddaughter was thankfully gung ho about the episode (not the slightest bit scared) and was sat in the front passenger seat and I told her to sit with her feet on top of the bag, so that when the owl tried to get out, she could push down on the bag (a little), in an effort to stop its attempts to get free. Thankfully, the bird was so exhausted that it didn't make much effort to escape and pushing down gently on the top of the bag, had the desired effect. Had it not done so and had the bird broke free from the bag and tried to fight it's way to freedom, from inside the car, I hate to think of the potential fearsome consequences.
So at this point, I know there is a bird sanctuary not too far away but not sure exactly where it is, so I called my daughter and asked her to get directions and to contact the sanctuary to prepare them for the fact, that I'm bringing them a Snowy owl to take off my hands and look after. About 20 minutes later I find the sanctuary and one of the staff come to deal with the bird and it's at this point, that we get a taste of just how vicious and dangerous a trapped Snowy owl can be, as it attacked the staff member with it's beak, as he was trying to secure it.
It turned out that wealthy Maltese guys buy rare birds like the Snowy owl and keep them tethered as 'pets' or prestige symbols and this one had broken it's leather tether and flown away. Such a shame that I could not have held on to it and transported it to it's natural habitat, so I could have released it there, rather than it go back to captivity but under these circumstances it was the only thing I could do and the safest for both me and the bird.
For anyone who finds this insane story too hard to believe or for those who believe and would like to see the proof, the following are 2 video clips of the episode, that were taken at the time and posted on YouTube;
Hope you enjoy the story and seeing such a beautiful bird saved from almost certain death.
