I went out with Wolfy on Monday trying to get the king fisher. Despite being in our hides for hours we only got a glimpse of him as we were packing up would you believe. On way back we decided to go past a point where we had seen some BOP few months ago. As we were driving thorugh this small town on the way to the place we saw a large brown BOP below house level go in front of us at the intersection. NO he didn;t give way hehe. Despit our best effors we couldnt get a shot of it. He managed through the streets better than we did with the car. Anyway at location I managed to get these few shots .
PS: Please do make sure my id's are correct for every post I make. I am new at birding :)
Black Shouldered Kite. Saw him hovering but was too late to get him when he cought his prey. Got these photos while he was eating it.
Finished Eating
Hunting again.
Spotted and zeroed in on his prey. Diving attack.
Mission Accomplished
Juvenile White-Bellied Sea Eagle
...Who is Wolfy ? ...What little town ?
M-L
impressive range of shots and good hunting shots abeleski. the kite must have been hunting mice.
Cheers, Owen.
Araminta: wolfy is a friend of mine who recently joined the forums here. He has made a couple of posts.
Owen1: Yeah, the shots didnt turn out too bad I guess. And he was definitely hunting mice. You can see it in his claws clearly in the last shot. He cought two from two attempts while we were there. Funny cause walking through the field we didn't see any mice.
I was born to live and I live to die.
Beautiful shots Alex ..... LOL re "we didn't see any mice" ..... of course you didn't ...you are not a BOP but a mere human being !
Sunshine Coast Queensland
birdie: i am no ordinary human. I am "abeleski" i will have you know. And I did see this which kept me off the grassy areas after that.
I was born to live and I live to die.
good shot of these raptors abeleski! sharp eyes :)
The redbellied blacksnake looks well fed. ...lots of mice!! (The one that lives at my place, is much slimmer!)
M-L
Wonderful flight shots of both BOP. The BSK is a stunner isn't it? It must have been so interesting watching it hunt. I haven't seen any around here for a few months.
Yeah it was birdgirl. But I was just surprised at his success rate at getting the mice. Very skilled bird. And I thought he would have been happy with one but after he finished one mouse he went and got another 5 mins later.
I was born to live and I live to die.
Great shots abeleski!
Where did you see the sea-eagle? I spotted a pair soaring last weekend over Cringilla, just west of the steelworks. B was more concerned with my driving than with the birds as I strained to watch them in the car LOL!
HI Holly. I saw both the Eagle and the BSK at Bass Point reserve near the quarry. Its also where I saw the Osprey last time.
And yeah,I know what you mean about being sidetracked by birds all the time now. I would have been packing it if I was B too LOL.
Yesterday I went for a walk with my family in the Botanic gardens and had my camera with me ofcourse. My wife was playing with my son with a squeaky toy and I was running around the gardens trying to figure out where this bird was making those squeaking noises. I don't know how she puts up with me. She got a laugh out of it though once I eventually homed in on where the sound was coming from.
I was born to live and I live to die.
I have read this elsewhere as well:
Their influence on mouse populations is probably significant: adults take two or three mice a day each if they can, and on one occasion a male was observed bringing no less than 14 mice to a nest of well-advanced fledglings within an hour
http://bird.net.au/bird/index.php?title=Black-shouldered_Kite
Maybe you should have stuck around a bit longer! Bass Point is a great place isn't it? We used to dive down there when we lived in Sydney
Nice pics Ace. :-)
With regards to feeding, I believe a pair of Australian Kestrels have the "known" record of something like 74 various prey items fed to chicks in a one hour period. I will look it up to be sure. I think it was Lindsay Cupper who made these observations. Certainly interesting info. :-)
74 prey items? Cmon, how many chicks was there in the nest LOL. Thats unbelievable.
I was born to live and I live to die.