As it Happened: Possession Is…

Posted in Black-shouldered Kite, Point CookTagged ,

Our most recent outings have all been in the one location at Point Cook Coastal Park.
At least three families of young Black-shoudered Kites have been working in the area.
As best we’ve been able to count there have been nine young Kites, with at least two of their supervising male adults, one semi-resident male, who has a second clutch on the go and is busy feeding Madeline, and perhaps two or three late juveniles that have started to lose their apricot colouring and take on the rich red eye colour.

Intruiging to walk down a roadway with up to eight or more of them sitting on fence posts all calling and tail-wagging in territorial poses. While in the air around them several others are applying their skills for a feed.

But with finite amounts of mice, and so many kites a few squabbles were inevitable. And Mike was not happy about having so many extra mouths to feed when he has the new clutch growing.

As I said to someone the other day, it’s the stuff to fill memory cards on.
And I’ve wondered how many feeding Kite pictures does a blog need. Still I don’t know.
So here are the dramas from a few days.

Enjoy!

This one seemed to me to be an adult the way it was hunting, and I was suprised to see when I looked closely it was a juvenile. They pull out of the headlong dive just before the ground and the feet are swung in to land on the prey-mouse. I’ve been near them from time to time and they hit the ground with quite a distinct, “THUD”
If you can’t catch a mouse, then it’s fair game to stop the next bird in their hunting efforts, which always results in a few circles of the paddock as they sort out the differences.
Now this I’ve never seen before.
This bird is eating the mouse on the wing. It’s a bit to dangerous to land on a post to have a leisurely meal as one or other other the others will make a pass and try to relieve you of your catch.
They fly quite high to do this action, and then hover-fall as they reach down and take pieces, until it can be swallowed whole.
This is one of the older two or three that have lately come to the paddock. It has easily secured a meal and is keeping it quite hidden from everybody else
Old enough to defend itself, it was lining up for a fence post landing
A large tail-flick is a warning to all that is prepared to claim territory. It has also dropped the wings to ‘mantle’ over the mouse.
And here the tail is covering any sign of its possession.
Meanwhile Mike is running off any birds that try to hunt in his area.
I’m not sure where the boundary was, but the young were continually hunted over the far side of the roadway.
The young were quite capable of squabbling amonst themselves for the best positions. I came to the conclusion from the way they each returned to a specific area, that the mice were in that location.
Another successful strike. And now to find a place to enjoy the meal.
Ths is the same bird and its easy to see that it has the mouse very tightly tucked up to keep safe from the others. It spiralled up to gain height to eat it on the wing
Here, it is enjoying the fruits of its labour. As it lazily difted down in a slow descent.

No doubt by this week, the fields will be pretty bare as the young will begin to move further down the coast or inland to find their own hunting grounds.

12 thoughts on “As it Happened: Possession Is…”

  1. A wonderful series of images, David!
    Interesting to see one ‘dining on the fly’, I have seen Falcons and Kestrels do that but never a Kite!
    Amazing to see so many in the one area!

    Like

    Reply

    1. Yes we’ve watched Black-shouldered Kites over the years and had not seen the on-the-fly feed before.  We’ve seen these kites do it several times so t might just be a large flock activity.  Perhaps they have learned from one another.  

      Like

      Reply

    2. Yes we’ve watched Black-shouldered Kites over the years and had not seen the on-the-fly feed before.  We’ve seen these kites do it several times so t might just be a large flock activity.  Perhaps they have learned from one another.  

      Like

      Reply

    1. Thanks A. 
      There is a high foot and vehicle traffic at the entrance to the Park and the young kites pretty much ignored the human presence.   Raining here today. So I guess that will slow down the mice and the young will disperse.  They certainly have all the skills needed

      Like

      Reply

    1. Hi Adam
      About three years ago we had about 40-50 kites at the back of Avalon Airport for around a month or so.  This is the biggest group we seen since then, in one area.  

      The mice must have had a population explosion.  
      No doubt after the rain today the young kites will begin to disperse 

      Still sorting through the shots. 😅

      Like

      Reply

  6. I thought I’d left a comment a while ago, so was back to simply say that I wanted to have another look at these beautiful birds. However, looking at all the “anonymous” comments above, now I’m not sure if I have seen this page. Anyway, that aside, this is another delightful series of photos; well done…!!!
    Cheers,
    Lance

    Like

    Reply

G'day, Please feel free to Leave a Reply. Now auto approved