Personal mystery solved, nearly 30 years later

Way back in about 1993, I lived for a couple of years in a townhouse at Sunshine Beach, just behind Noosa Heads, a stunning part of the world.  

What became not so pleasant, however, were many of the summer months during which, at the very earliest start of a brightening sky, (around 4.20 am, due to no daylight saving - I just looked it up to make sure I wasn't mistaken), a single bird would sit in a neighbour's tree to the rear of my courtyard and make a loud call for about 30 minutes, continuously.  Then stop.

My bedroom was on the upper floor and faced the tree.  

It drove me nuts.  It was impossible to sleep through, and after being awake for 30 minutes at that time of morning, it's pretty impossible to go back to sleep again.  To get even 7 hours of sleep at night, you would have to be asleep by 9.30pm, which would mean no TV after, say, 9pm, which adults generally like to watch later than that.   And it went on for months.  I reckon it routinely cut down my sleep to less than 6 hours, so  I was just constantly sleep deprived in the summer.

Not only that, I couldn't even see the bird, and although I did try throwing something into the tree one morning (I don't recall what, but it wasn't anything dangerous to the neighbour), it was not to be dissuaded.

I asked at work if anyone knew what type of bird it was, not that that would have helped.  No one did.  And this was pre-internet, so going on line to see if anyone else was going nuts with a local avian loudmouth was impossible.   The only hope would be to ring a naturist on talk back radio, or something.

Anyway, fast forward to now, and my CNA subscription on Youtube throws up a story from Singapore about a bird that many people find particularly annoying for its early call:

 

And yes, that is it! That is the aggravating call from Noosa, nearly 30 years ago.

Do koels exist in South East Queensland?  Yes, they do:

Usually arriving in September, the Common Koel is a large migratory cuckoo which flies to Australia from New Guinea, Indonesia and possibly the Philippines. It breeds in northern and eastern Australia, mostly in Queensland and NSW, south at least to Sydney, where they are common in the suburbs. A few venture into eastern Victoria, and vagrants have occurred as far afield as Melbourne, the Murray River and Adelaide. They remain until March or April, when they return to their non-breeding grounds.

So not only had that bird ruined my sleep, it had probably travelled hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometres to do so!

I hate them even more.

Maybe many other people know what this bird sounds like, but I never thought to go searching for it online since the internet made it possible.

But now I know.   The wonders of the modern age, etc.