What the @#$% was that?!

During the JCMA conference I was awoken by this very odd noise. It sounded ...

okay a quick aside. the maintenance guy just came by and asked if by next Friday i could, "look a bit scroggier" (I'm in a suit if you can believe it) because I remind him of the Mormons that go around knocking on peoples doors. Who in their right mind would have ever imagined that someone would have to ask me to look 'scroggier'.

Anyways so I heard this noise, and it sounded a bit like maniacal laughter, and my very first thought (seriously) was, "i didn't realize there were monkeys in Australia".

I found out later that it was a kookaberra (sitting in an old gum tree for you GUCI folks), this bird that sounds like the offspring of a screech monkey and a hyena and looks like a pigeon. I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but...