Location - central coast lakes, NSW
I was walking along the lake and noticed a big flock of corellas chasing a relatively large raptor. My view was obscured by trees so didn't get a photo of that. So i walked down to the direction they had gone, but lost sight of it.
Assuming the raptor had flown off, I didnt think of it again. Walking past a bit of land that has been rehabilitated as saltmarsh, where there's a lot of very tall reeds growing in the water, suddenly a very large raptor flies out of the reeds less than a couple of metres in front of me. By the time I'd picked my jaw up I'd missed the perfect photo opportunity! All I got were these very dark photos facing the sun as he flew off. This is the same raptor as the corellas were chasing, all I can say is he was considerably brown in colour and big. I only regularly see sea eagles and pacific bazas in this location, no other large (or small) raptors so I'm dying to confirm what this is. Thanks in advance for any help and apologies for the shocking quality!
Please right click and view image if they're too large here, as I didnt want to reduce size and lose even more quality.
/7090/dsc4726t.jpg[/img]
Very blurry pic added as its the only one that sort of shows some colouring.
On the behavioural aspect, is this something a swamp harrier would do? Being IN the marshes and reeds in the water. When I went to the spot he came out of, there was nothing to be seen but a family of chestnut teals just a metre away with 3 young ducklings, seemingly untouched. Really interesting behaviour that I'd love to find out more about.
One photo didn't work above:
Swamp Harrier was exactly my thought.
They have a characteristic white rump which I can imagine on the second last photo...?
They are quite large, and do spend a lot of time hunting within a few metres of the ground.
Cheers,
Scott.
The underwing pattern, barely visible in my first photo above, seems to be consistent too? Looking at this - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Swamp_Harrier_Kooragang.jpg
If I was forced at gun point to take a bet I'd say a swamp harrier, mainly because of the habitat but also because of the upswept wings, long "fingers" & slightly rounded tail.
I don't think juvenile swamp harriers have the white rump, do they? I suspect those chestnut teals were lucky you arrived when you did, budgie.
Based on your text (I cannot see any images), I'd say Swamp Harrier. I have some images on my site, take a look and see if it fits.
http://amatteroflight.com/gallery2/v/ausbirds/hawks/swmphr/