Went to the Derwent this afternoon and got a great view of a Peregrine flying around with a Starling it had already caught (was hoping to see the hunting, but can't complain!). No great photos, but the best I've got of a Peregrine so far..
PS - still haven't successfully posted here, Flickr didn't work last time, so will try uploading directly to here...?
Yay that worked. The Starling is most obvious in the last photo I think.
Thanks for looking, I'll work on better ones (nowhere near as good as you Birdgirl!) :)
Cheers,
Scott.
NIce sighting Scott and good that you have mastered the uploading . It is a bit strange lately there seems to be a delay with the uploading. The links should work ok with Flickr though.
Sunshine Coast Queensland
Amazing Scott, you can clearly see the starling, and the details on the wings. Last time you showed us some photos of the Peregrine Falcons you said we could find them hunting starlings. Driving last week I payed more attention to a swarm of starlings, and I'm certain there were some falcons around. Some very good advice, thanks. Waiting for more photos.
M-L
They are amazing photos. I've never seen anything like that, except once, believe it or not, I looked out my window and a grey goshawk rose out of of my back garden with a grey bird (spotted turtle dove?) in its talons. Keep watching and posting. I'm glad its going for the introduced species - we could do with a few hundred here to go after the Indian Mynas
Thanks for the comments :)
Glad you're keeping an eye out M-L. I'm definitely getting my eye in for seeing them now... Still an element of pot luck as to whether they're actually about, but good to be improving the odds!
I find the alarm call of New Holland Honeyeaters the best guide to trouble in the skies. Noisy Miners and Masked Lapwings in other areas are excellent also. They can sound absolutely panicked if they see a Peregrine. The Starlings form a distinctively tight flock in flight when a falcon is spotted - if you see this it's worth hanging around and looking closely for a BOP. At my place, I run outside when the NHH's go off. If I see Starlings whirring around I know there's a falcon somewhere nearby.
PS - I was surprised to hear and see the above NHH / starling behaviour only to find it was a Brown Falcon hovering and circlling low around the bush the Starlings had all alighted in just below my backyard a few weeks ago. Brown falcons have such a slow / awkward looking way of flying at times, I was surprised to see that this one seemed on the prowl for Starling... Are they bird hunters? Are they any good at it??! Any stories / opinions welcome :)
My day off tomorrow... so of course I'll be looking for the Peregrines again... Fingers crossed...
Cheers,
Scott
Scott, I was told years ago brown falcons are adept at following their prey into bushes. I've seen this once myself. Again the prey was a starling which was captured.
Thanks Woko, I'll be keeping my eye on them more now. I've since read similar things - very interesting.
No peregrine sighting that next day, but from my balcony I did see a Brown Goshawk, then a white-phase Grey Goshwak twice. The Grey Goshawk I actually jumped in my car and folllowed in several runs into the next suburb. Awesome watching him for so long, and seeing him suddenly dive down between houses (after small birds presumably). Unfortunately I only once got to find him perched. Best view ever, fully open to view and quite close, but unfortunately he flew off as soon as I thought of how great those photos were going to be!!!
Nothing to share but words, sorry, but was awesome to see more BOP at home. I haven't found reference to Grey Goshawks in cities yet, but they seem to be doing it quite well here - if you call Hobart a city ;) . I'm still trying to establish where the Pergrines and Grey Goshawks are nesting. I have a theory for both, but no evidence yet!
Cheers,
Scott.
Exciting stuff, Scott. It's lovely to hear that a species like the grey goshawk is alive & well in a city. (Anything with more than 2 house is a city to me.)