Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST
Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST
We joined the Eynesbury Environmental Group for a walk in the local Grey Box Forest as part of the ongoing Swift Parrot Surveys.
Swifties are highly mobile, nomandic and unpredictable in location. And today was quite a successful Survey day, as we conclusively proved they were Not in the area. 🙂
But a day in Grey is not be be missed and Chris L, put on another of his now famous, “Sunshine” days.
Here’s a selection from the walk.
Enjoy
His strident one note call resounded across the paddock, to be answered by her equally raucuous cackle.
Alistair was bringing in an offering snack for Cassia, of Cinnamon.
They met in a treeline about 800m from where I was and I missed the noisy food exchange, but did see Alistair fly out and land in the open on an old tree.
After a suitable meal time, Cassia, swung out to land in the same tree.
Interesting.
As she prepares for her nesting period, he needs to make sure she is quite well topped up to last the nearly 8 weeks of confinement when she won’t hunt for herself and relies on his constant attention.
It’s a little early for any eggs to be laid, based on previous seasons, I’d expect that to happen toward the end of September, (but who knows with Falcons).
Browns don’t build nests, they are quite the environmenally aware creatures and chose to repurpose a Magpies nest from a previous season. Maggies, don’t tend to use the same nest, preferring to purpose build. So it’s not as though the Falcons have to eject any unwanted sqautters.
With other things to do in the morning, mostly because of a strong offshore breeze bringing some Gannets in close enough for a reasonable photo, we didn’t pursue the happy couple.
On the way back from the beach, we detoured through the pine-tree-line, in case they were sitting.
Foolishly I rounded a tree and without looking stumbled on to Cassia perched down low. She bolted. I castigated myself for being so clumsy.
She quickly regained composure and sat in a tree about 50m away. And watched. And I watched.
Alistair came in quickly on the wind, turned and landed on the branch just above her, and watched. She watched. I watched.
A quick wing flap and Cassia landed near him, but on the highest open branch. And watched.
Then after a typical Falcon TIme Wait, she crouched over, and called him, encouraging him to mate.
Alistair, it has to be said, did not need much time to consider the offer.
Turning into the wind, he lightly took off, ever so gently landed on top of her bent over back, and the process of pro-creation began.
He then lifted wings and again ever so gently lifted off and away.
She relocated to another tree deeper in the pine tree line and we left them to carry on.
Enjoy
The four D’s had set out at Truganina Park on a lovely sunny day—which would rapidly turn into a cold, windy and squally morning—but who would know!
No sooner had we entered the park than a black and white streak sped past and landed in a tree just above the picnic shelter.
At least two loud exclamations from the D’s “There’s a New Nest Going in Up There”. And we all looked. Sure enough a lot of twitching and shaking in the leaves, and the resident Austalian Magpie was hard at work.
In the space of about 15 minutes she made 5 more trips into the tree. She was loaded with sticks and grasses and by midmorning must have been well pleased with her work.
There is a cleverness to the location, as we found out later as we sat in the shelter enjoying a cuppa of the Earl’s finest—wise move given the weather.
For her high position she has great views and it gives ready access to any handouts that might be forthcoming from humans and their messy eating habits when outdoors.
Very quickly both the female, and then gliding in from a long way out, the male, arrived to see what we had to offer. These are no first time birds and have been in the area for at least 10 years or so, perhaps even more. They know all the best spots to get that handout, and she won’t have to fly far for something for her growing young.
As it happened
Enjoy
We had on a chance stopped by to see if infact Madeline the Black-shouldered Kite had any prospects of a full nest.
Whatever is going on is worth defending as she cleared out a murder of Ravens, a lone Black-faced Cuckooshrike, the two Falcons, Cassia, of Cinnamon and Alistair, and confronted the home team neighborhood watch Magpies.
The Ravens have a nest about 3 trees down from her nest, and it’s going to be an ongoing battle.
In the end, she pursed the Falcons to about a radius of 600-700 metres.
It was a very busy morning for a very aggressive and angry bird.
As it Happened.
Been pondering of late about the future of Birdsaspoetry Blog.
Maintaining a full library of images and keeping up with adding new posts, amid all the other things that happens in a life is certainly a challenge.
Had a quick ponder and think I’ll be publishing less of the ‘complete’ photo-journalist stories and concentrate on just one, perhaps two moments that we’ve been seeing.
Fewer pictures per post, so that might be an advantage in this ‘immediacty’ age. 🙂
Have been working at making project albums on another site and am trying to figure a way to link directly to here, but. More on that another time.
Madeline and Mike at Point Cook have been working on a second clutch for the year. Progress seems to be slow and it’s hard to determine at what, if any, stage the clutch, if indeed she has layed, is progressing.
The tree area is also favoured by the local Magpie clan, and a number of Little Raven pairs. (They are now busy carrying sticks and settling in).
So, tree and air space are becoming a little crowed for Madeline and perhaps her progeny.
She is not having anyone put their nest in any proximity to her chosen site so a battle royal was in progress. The nifty little kite had two advantages, she can soar without using any energy—the ravens have to keep a constant wing -beat to stay up. And she has some speed advantage stooping from on high.
The ravens have two advantages. Sheer numbers. There were about 12-15, and sheer cunning.
While they allowed the kite to attack one or two, the others would group up for a sneak attack while she was distracted.
After about 10 minutes, it all calmed down as the ravens needed to land and refresh.
Mike came sailing over the paddock with a fresh mouse, as if nothing unusual was going on.
Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST 