September 2024 – Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST

Saturday Evening Post: Sitting Pretty

September 28, 2024Posted in Peregrine Falcon, Saturday Evening PostTagged Peregrine Falcon, Saturday Evening Post5 Comments

We’ve been up the family acres this past week.
Had the chance to go and have a peek at a pair of Peregrine Falcon that have taken up residence in a creek-line escarpment

After the usual bumpy ride in along the old track, we were able to see the splashes on the rockface that showed their presence.
The face they have chosen, catches the early morning sunshine, and because of the angle of the cliff, the light quickly goes off the face and leaves the nest in shadow.
We had planned for an early start, but, as families, are, this had to be done, then that, and a discussion or two on other things, so it was a late start.
By the time we arrived, early morning feeding of the sitting bird had been accomplished and it (presumably the female) settled down and occasionally poked its head over the stone battlement. The other bird didn’t return in the nearly two hours we had available.

I noted the rockface on our side of the creek was a little lower than the main bluff, so looked to find a way to get up a little higher. Rock climbing on a grade 27 (Ewbank) face is not something I was equipped for nor had a desire to free climb.
I did find what could probably be a goat track, if there were goats in the area, (no pun intended) and it was no longer used, perhaps the ethereal goat met its doom there.
After a little bit of struggle, I managed to get the old body carefully, and that is very carefully, upward on the loose rocks, and slippery wet grass. Not to mention assorted blackberry and prickly wattle and some sticky myrtle.
That work gave me a view into the nest site. It’s a great site for such a nest, perhaps a large boulder dislodged a long time ago and left a sizeable hole which the bird could settle down into, and it would be protected from all but the worst eastern driven rain. (A rain we rarely get).

Once atop of the escarpment, I waited, hoping (she) might move in the nest, or the other bird might return for some flight shots, but time, as they say, ran out.
I walked back along the edge as I’d seen a sloping area further around that was close to where the parked IamGrey waited patiently, and would be an easy descent.
Great idea. Foiled by thick blackberry bushes and bracken. Not being able to see through the bracken as to what might be underneath lead me back to the aforementioned “goat” track, and looking down, it seemed even more precarious than going up. Once in a lifetime years ago, I would have tackled it and not even thought about it, now, each step was carefully considered and eventually without too much drama, except for those pesky blackberry and prickly wattle spots, I was back on ‘level’ ground.

One last look at the nest site, and it was time to return to family festivities.

Enjoy

Saturday Evening Post: Sky Dancing

September 21, 2024Posted in Brown Falcon, Saturday Evening PostTagged Brown Falcon, Saturday Evening Post5 Comments

Was doing a google search t’other day and as usual managed to get lots of info, most of it—irrelevant to my original enquiry. That I should have been surprised.

It was a simple question about how far can you see to the horizon. I live on the Western Victorian Lava Plains. The plains extend 350 km east-west. So I was wondering as I stand in the open paddock on flat ground, how far can I see in all directions. Seems the general consensus is around 5km. Mind my ophthalmologist will tell you at that distance most of what I see would be pretty blurry.

Why, no doubt you are wondering, and what bought this inquisitiveness on?

Sky Dancing

The area in which I was standing is part of the territory of a pair of Brown Falcon. As she prepares for a nesting season, they tend to spend a lot of time sky dancing. Pursing one another across the sky with much calling and aerial displays.

This pair are mostly human intolerant (Me too!) so getting close is no easy matter.

The winds have been high for the past couple of weeks, and on this day there were gusts of 50kph or more. The strong winds seems to give the birds an extra enthusiasm. Standing in the open paddock it was easy to see them scoot across the sky, from horizon to horizon.
If you’ve never seen or heard a pair of Brown Falcons pair-bonding, I’d hope one day you can. It is accomplished with lots of aerial antics and much raucous calling.

From where we stood we are able to see them sweep across the entire sky. So quickly and so far that sometimes they disappeared from sight. It was humbling to see these birds flash back and forth covering several kilometres either side of where I stood in mere seconds. It would take me 15 minutes to walk back to IamGrey in the carpark.

They also were working quite high up, so any photos I made really are at a distance. These may not be the most useful pics I’ve made, but worth sharing.

Lots of flying close together, quite a few times one or the other was flipped upside down or even one on top of the other with only metres seperation. They were so fast on the wind, and so high that the normal harassment by Magpies and others just couldn’t get started. Even if a Maggie had made her best vertical ascent, the Falcons would have been a kilometre or more away by the time she got anywhere near to the height.

In the end they disappeared to a tree-line way down the range, and perhaps that is where this year’s clutch will take place. Time, will tell

Saturday Evening Post: I’ve Got This!!

September 14, 2024Posted in Little Pied Cormorant, Saturday Evening PostTagged Little PIed Cormorant, Saturday Evening Post6 Comments

The past couple of weeks have been anything but a birders paradise in terms of weather. Even the birds know it!

The beach at Point Cook where we currently are frequenting, has been beaten upon by wind and wave, and the sands have been moved from one location to another. It’s quite interesting to see part of the rock formations now standing boldy in the water, and further along the beach new sloped, almost perfectly sculpted, sands that would be prized in any tourist location.

From the early settlement days there is remnant of a pier that now stands, just a bit forlornly, a shadow of its former self. It has long been a resting place for the local cormorants and gulls, and now because many of the foreshore rocks are covered by sand, it is even busier that previously.

One of the birds that regularly come to rest and dry out are Little Pied Cormorants.
For some reason, they seem to have a habit of a most ungainly landing technique and no two ever seem to be the same.
So it’s rather fascinating to see them slip in across the water, all sleek and wings held out, to lift up and suddenly their confidence seems to change, and body, wings, and feet all seem to go in wildly different directions.

I’m sure there is method to it all, but it does provide for some interesting observations.
Add to the normal challenges, this one was landing into about a 40kph+, with a few bursts that would have been much higher.

Still, persistence pays off.

Here’s another that just gave up and crashed into the water.

Saturday Evening Post: Stop Press

September 7, 2024Posted in Saturday Evening PostTagged Saturday Evening Post6 Comments

Spring, as they say has Sprung.

The arrival of Demeter and Persephone
To the ancient Greeks, spring and summer signified the six months when Persephone returned from the Underworld, and her mother Demeter made the earth bloom and grow bountiful after her absence.

Now, of course this was written for the more northern climes, so for us mere southerners, perhaps Demi and Seph get two goes at coming around. Facts should never get in the way of a good yarn.

Now a good rollikin’ Greek legend has many a twist and turn
The good Bard used a variation of the story in his play, “A Winter’s Tale”, with the basic structure recalling the myth of Persephone, a beautiful young girl abducted by Hades, the god of the underworld, from a flowering field where she was playing. Allowed to return six months of every year to the earth’s surface, Persephone’s comings and goings explain the cycle of winter and summer.
Demeter, of course, is the one that negotiates the release of her daughter, and so every year as Spring rolls around mother and daughter are reunited and the earth,—because of Demeter’s happiness, blossoms and new life develops .
The Bard, in his way, used a tad or more of poetic licence on the basics of the story.

Fascinating, I’m sure, but I’m also sure that the flocks of Welcome Swallows, and Fairy Martins are driven by more than a whimsical legend or an English poet/playwright.

We had decided that as the sun was shining and the wind wasn’t howling, that a trip down to Werribee South Marina,(and coffee shop) would be a pleasant way to spend the morning in the sunshine.
Close by to the waters edge, there were still few tiny puddles of water, and some mud. For the next 30 minutes or so the Fairy Martins and Welcome Swallows swept in to collect material for their little nesting projects. Wouldn’t it interesting to know how many trips they each made, but they must have had a site quite local, as no sooner did they seem to depart than they were back for another load.
The small area of mud was alongside a busy footpath. (The sunshine bought out not only Demi and Seph but all the locals for their dog-walk and coffee fix) The little birds seem to pay it all no attention, lifting off if disturbed, to circle about and re-land.
Such is dedication. Demeter would be proud
And such was the action that a pair of Magpie-larks joined in as well. However I missed seeing their mud collecting.

On the way home we stopped for a few minutes as there is a family of Magpies on the corner of a close street. How close? Well between EE and I we walk past the tree several times a week, in the early first light of morn.

I went by earlier in the week and didn’t notice anything unusual, but Mrs Maggie has been very busy and has in just a few days constructed a very secure, if somewhat open planning nest. Suitably festooned with discarded building site materials. Colour Coordination is obviously important to throughly modern roadside Magpies. I’m thinking I might name her Persephone.

As I can easily see the nest from the footpath, I do hope to keep a track of the comings and goings as the season progresses.

Enjoy

Along the Track: Feeding Frenzy #2

September 5, 2024September 5, 2024Posted in Along the Track, Spiny-cheeked HoneyeaterTagged Along the Track, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeter6 Comments

I showed the Black-faced Cuckooshrikes last week.

Here are some of the Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters from the same time and location.

Checked back the other day, after about a week. All the bushes are pretty well stripped, except for one isolated bush in the middle of the paddock. For some reason it hasn’t been touched.

The Spiny-cheeked are still in residence, but the Cuckoo-shrikes have moved elsewhere

Enjoy