Author: David Jenkins

I’m not a bird counter or a bird accountant.   I don’t have a list of ‘must see’ birds, and don’t travel half way round the world to see that last   blue-headed rock eater.   So mostly I get a bit surprised when a bird turns up the would qualify as as ‘lifer’ for me.   But as I was to discover, what was interesting to me was a matter of life and death for a Silver Gull.

We had taken Mr An Onymous down  to the Treatment Plant for an evening drive, in the relative cool, and also to see if we could locate the Brolga in that lovely afternoon light.
Part of birding is of course enjoying a repast, and so we were parked at the Bird Hide track, snacking on our various gourmet delights, in my case a cuppa of Early Grey.

The beach was awash with high tide and the Silver Gulls in their hundreds had settling in to squabble over the few roosting spots on the bushes, small bits of sand and mud bar, and enjoy the cool breeze too.  What happened next was as much a surprise for the gulls as it was for us.

Every gull on the beach took to the air, with a high pitched squeak.  Not the usual gull calls, but a really high pitched call of excessive agitation.  I figured a Sea-eagle or a Harrier had made a run over the bushes, but couldn’t see any sign of the big birds. Then the massive flock of gull, literally ‘cleaved in two’ in the most biblical way.  One group heading along the coast to the south, the other rushing toward the salt bushes on the land. Then I spotted a small gull sized bird going at a speed that anywhere else would have me call Falcon, or Hobby.  But it was not that shape. It latched on to the path of a single gull, and relentlessly pursued it.  I gained an new admiration for the aerial exploits of the gull.  It cried in what can only be described as ‘sheer terror’.  The twisting spinning gull was able in the end to shake off its purser.  All this happened of course in the time it takes to put down a hot cuppa, and pick up the camera. By the time I’d found the shutter button, the brown blob was rocketing out to sea.

The answer I concluded to the questions, What was that, did you see that, did it catch the gull, where did it go, what was it, can you see it now,  (you get the idea), was  Jaeger. Now I can of course confidently say the word, but having never seen one, nor seen anything that puts pure fear into Silver Gulls, I was only at best, guessing.

The gulls settled down, we settled down, and began to talk of other things.

Then the same high pitched call from the gulls, and they were all up in an instant. This time the D7100 was by myside and I soon got on to the brown shape bulleting through the gulls. They split. But, the Jaeger was not to be denied, and as they split it singled out a lone gull which it then proceeded to herd away from the two flocks until it was on its own. Then it pursed it about 500-700 metres inland.  The gull was completely outclassed for speed and any attempt to turn only had the Jaeger on that side like a sheep dog, blocking its escape.  With plenty of room to manoeuvre, and the gull now totally isolated, the Jaeger took time to grab some height and then stoop on the gull.  By sheer good luck the desperate gull avoided the first stoop, then the Jaeger climbed again. With nowhere to go the gull went into a spiral, but the speed from above was relentless.   The Jaeger missed the second time, (just by the width of a feather I suspect), and now had to go round in a wide turn to the right to regain both speed and height.
The gull took all of its remaining strength and sprinted back toward the main flock. With  its nemesis in hot pursuit.  The gull’s speed proved adequate, and the flock rose again as the brown bullet sped through. Missing that meal it turned to the southern flock that was just making its way back along the beach.  Again the high pitched squeal, and the Yeager headed out to sea again.

We waited.

But, it must have moved on.

They are a branch of the Skua family. They nest in the Arctic, up like, Finland, and then patrol the seas.  A long way to come for a Gull dinner methinks.

My guess is this is an Arctic Jaeger.  Mr An Onymous tells me Jaeger is the German for “Hunter”. And the brand of a first rate beer.  Although he didn’t offer me a glass.

The Silver Gull has been singled out and separated from the main flock. The Jaeger’s turn of speed meant it was in total control.

In a stoop, you can see the two angles of flight are going to intersect.

Strike and miss, now it had to make a wide turn to gain height and  speed.  The gull, seeing its only chance heads for shelter.

In pursuit, but not gaining the advantage.

 

 

Slowed down as it didn’t want to waste energy on a fruitless pursuit.

 

 

 

Sizing the flock of another strike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was amazed at the high-pitched emergency call of the gulls as they scattered from its attack.

 

The Melbourne chapter of the BirdLife Photography Group had an outing at Newport Lakes and The Jawbones Reserve.

With a little overcast weather, but still plenty of heat around the humidity was pretty high.  Newport Lakes started out in early days as a quarry for bluestone, and then was used as the local rubbish tip for many years.  Due to some heavy duty lobbying in the mid 1970s the area was slowly reclaimed as an environmental area, and much work was done to restore the area and the lakes gave the water birds a new opportunity.

So we walked around the lake.  My Flickr friend Eleanor turned up, so it was great to put a face to a name, and have the chance to have a chat about our various images.    Down the track we walked and then sitting  in the quiet of a small clump of scrub was a Rufous Night Heron (formerly Nankeen Night Heron).  Try as we might it had managed to find the only spot on the waterway that was completely inaccessible for a good line of sight shot.   Clever bird.  Agitated by all the attention it finally decided that tree top height was safer.

We then set out across the large rocks that divide the lake and off in the distance an Australasian Darter and some Cormorants were visible in the old trees out in the water.   Swamp-hens that seem completely people adapted pushed past on the rocks, hurrying to the other side.   And a Little Pied Cormorant took advantage of the only pole near the rocks to preen and to pose in the sunshine.  It probably felt confident by the couple of metres of water between it and the curious photographers.

Further round a much better sighting of the Darter, and then it was time for morning tea, a bird count, and on to the Jawbones for lunch.
Dark ominous clouds threatened rain, but we sat under the shade of some sheoaks and watched the water birds while we ate lunch and chatted.  Then back to the cameras and bird spotting.  Find of the day was probably four Great-crested Grebes.  They took great delight in paddling to the opposite bank anytime someone came within good photo distance.   Quite a number of numbered swans with their collars showing, and a particularly big male whose collar seemed much to small for him when he fluffed out his neck feathers and performed for the local lads.  No one seemed to challenge him.

I was pleased to enter the data on the Myswan database when I got home and see that some of the swans led quite a mobile life up and down the bay, whereas others were much more the stay at homes.

In the end the heat, the humidity and other pressing duties made;  us bid farewell, to The Jawbones. “Gateway to the South”, (apologies to Peter Sellers, Denis Norden and Frank Muir: “Balham”.

Cunningly hidden away from direct line of sight on the creek bank this Rufous Night Heron was settling in for a well deserved sleep

No, I don’t do autographs.

Purple Swan-hen webbed foot dashing past.

You need to speak to my agent.  Little Pied Cormorant at rest.

Now you know why they are also called “Snake Birds”.

Armed for a day out along the Jawbones track.  Part of the photo group set out.

Practicing for its part in the up coming version of Swan Lake.

I’m available, and every other male is not welcome.  W26 shows his stuff.  The Collar is only tight as his neck feathers are extended in the show of strength.

Quite the get about is our unattached W26.

There have been several reports on Birdline of a Powerful Owl down along the Willamstown foreshore trees, actually on the Willi Limp- Latte strip to be precise.  When my mate Richard, he of Woodlands Historic Park bird lists, popped up a report, it was time to go investigate.

Now we had a bit of family business in the area today, and I dropped a line to Mr An Onymous to see if he’d like to be added to the list of intrepid Owl seekers, together with the promise of coffee afterward and in a shake, he was ready to go.

The  Powerful Owl is a pretty big bird, and I know a couple of things about them.  A) they are quite dangerous to possums, gulls and humans, not necessarily in that order.  B) they tend to sit high up in trees with a good canopy cover during daylight hours with the remains of last nights hunting foray clinging to the perch, and C), they have serious hardware attached to end of their legs, which enables them to hold on to said perch, and to grasp whatever has been on the menu.

So, as  the Banjo said, So we went.

The report had the owl in a Plane Tree, near BAE, the ship building company in Williamstown, they build  big things with sharp bits and hot heavy bits either attached to the top or the sides.  The Australian Navy seems to favour that sort of arrangement and has been a constant customer.

When we got there, BAE takes up quite the bit of real-estate on the shoreside of the road.   And there were a number of Plane trees on show.  We, probably read, “I” decided that where we parked  the car would be where we’d start.  While I went to the parking ticket machine, the intrepid group began to seek among the trees.  By the time I got back they’d built up quite a following of locals, BAE employees and the like all peering into the trees with encouraging comments such as “Oh, the owl is back is it!” Nice work team. Even a couple of tourists thought it might be something to add to their agenda.

Much pointing and highlighting previous perches soon was the flavour of the moment.  And I thought. Great.  All I need now is some heavily armed security people to imagine the worst of a group of people outside a military installation armed with cameras, binoculars and a following of locals.

After several fruitless, but fun minutes, the locals assumed, quite correctly, that the “Owl was not back”, and moved on to other things.

There are more Plane Trees down the road, seemed to be the obvious next move.  So while the said intrepid group moved down the road, I went over to talk to the lone Security Guard who had ‘miraculously’ appeared.

Attack being the best form of defence, my opening gambit was, “G,day,  Security folk now lots of stuff about what’s going on in the area, we’re looking for the Powerful Owl, any ideas?”

To my surprise, not only did he know, but had a fair idea where it was, how long it had been there, what trees it had favoured in the past, how many possums it set on to in a week, and the lowering of the seagull population.  Bingo!

He also volunteered that last evening the Powerful Owl had made several passes at the Night Security Guard on his rounds.  So after chatting about OH&S issues for security guards and attacks from Powerful Owls he suggested the , “big tree down by the head office, near the second floor windows.”   EE and Onymous were already heading down that way, and so I thanked him for his insight and a lady going by said, “Oh, you’d be looking for the owl, its down here most days!” And waved me on to the building with the second floor window.  “In the testimony of two witness”, so the texts say, that was good enough for me.

So I ambled down,  EE was looking in the open trees near the building, and I’d lost sight of Mr An.

Not wanting to look up as I passed the building with the second floor windows, I glanced quickly up.   Big brown blob on branch.
Stopping, and looking about to be sure it was ok, I took a longer look. Yep, unmistakable.  The back of a Powerful Owl.  A nod is a as good as a wink for EE, and so I ambled back up to the car to get my camera, and bring the car down for a quick get-away. By the time I’d parked Mr An was knee deep in garden and pointing upward.

The rest is pretty simple. Take pictures, be unhappy about the light, change the exposure, be unhappy about the branches and leaves on the Plane tree getting in the way, and take more pictures.

Ten minutes later and we’d found a good cafe on the other side of the road,  to Schwabs Gallery, and  enjoyed a fine Lamb Pide and/or Smoked Salmon on Rye.  Top coffee and a promise to come back on another expedition and repeat the successful part of the intrepid day out in the wilds of Williamstown’s coffee set.  Note to self.  Must go again to Schwabs Gallery.  Mr An Onymous missed seeing the Vanilla Slice, so might be found cycling down for a solo repeat performance.

Ah, there you are.

Hard of course to see well because of the height, the light, and the branches and leaves.

With a feather from its recent kill hiding its face, and its attempt at sleep, it was pretty hard to get to see the bird closeup

The beautiful markings however showed up well.  Note to technically ept. 70-200 VR 2.8 with a TC20E iii. e.g. 400mm

No, I don’t want to be famous on Flickr.

After a week away, it was good to be able to get back to some familiar territory, and we set out to visit Jimmy, Karen, and Ginger.  Took us awhile to locate one of the adults, but no sign of the other one nor Ginger. But given the shrewdness of these little birds sometimes that is not surprising.

Did find our one hard working pair of Wagtails had their young but a few days from flying.

They are now so active, and the nest is really not enough to contain such rapidly growing and hyperactive littleuns.

A couple more days should see them on the wing. Hope so before the really hot spell of weather sets in again.