Category: Australian Hobby

When new neighbours arrive, birds are as inquisitive as the next one.

However it didn’t always go well for the young Hobbies as some of the neighbours have a distinct dislike for raptors, small, large, young or old.

A constant source of interaction was with the Galahs in the area.

Here is one such event.

Next in line, several more turn up and chase the young Hobby about the sky.  The little dudes still don’t have real flying skills, so it’s a pretty much one way competition.
Here the galahs have outpaced and out-turned the Hobby, but give the impression of being chased.  Not so.

Early morning and one of the young was having some quiet time in the sunshine when a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets dropped by for a looksee.  Much more robust in their attack, and working as a team, the young Hobby in the end had to abandon its rest spot.

Close to the last pages in the field notes.
The Hobbies quickly gain flight experience and then were off to explore the world around the nesting location.  A week on and they could disappear almost at the blink of an eye, and quickly reappear breaking all records in a sharp dive descent.

Their next adventure was learning to hunt along the tree-line nearby, but for a photographer there was not chance of keeping up with the action.

The young Hobbies were well established but still needed to be feed by the female.
In this sequence she divides up the catch among two of the young. The other would not miss out, as another meal was certainly on the way.

Had this ready to go and then got side-tracked last night and overlooked the Publish button.

The young Hobbies had flown. Three hungry mouths on the wing.
It is interesting to observe them in the nest. Too big to just settle down, too young to actually be out and about.
After lots of wing practice, hanging on to the nest, and exploring the close branches, they seem to have full knowledge of what is required, but the connection between flapping and letting go is not made.
Then, it’s seems, almost on a whim, they turn, flap, and are aerial.  Not that it’s great flying, mind you,  straight lines mostly, and of course the challenge of slowing down enough to grab onto a branch for security.

Presumably they were airborne the day before we arrived, as they seemed to have settled to the jobs at hand.  Dad was still bringing in food, Mum organising it and distibuting in an even manner.
Three perfect little carbon copies.

We had, about a month back, one of those beautiful days that make photography not only a pleasure, but also a chance to nail some great detail.

The Hobby pair were still feeding the young, and the male was providing a steady assortment of snacks.

Here is one delivery from the series

• The male flies in and sets on a well used exchange branch. He then calls, softly, and she has been sitting high of the nest on another tree.  Without hesitation she glides to meet him. You can just see her wing in the top of the frame.
  
• With a minimum of fuss she quickly acquires the prize
  
  
  • In barely the  blink of an eye and she is on her way. As usual he is intent of watching, I assume to be ready to quickly pickup if she slips (not likely)
    
  • Securely tucked up, she is on her way
    
    
  • And a quick look at one of the young, now only a few days from flying.
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Some more moments from feeding habits of Hobbys.

This is a single event.

• The Male flies in with his latest acquisition.  He calls quietly to announce his presence and then just sits and waits.

• With barely a wing-flap she sweeps out of the nest, circles and lands beside him.

• He is always wary about letting go of the prey until he is certain that she has complete control.

• • Every time there is a food transfer, he is always so intent on watching that it has transferred correctly. He always seems ready to slip of the branch should she lose grasp.  I’d guess that it would only fall a metre or so before he was on it.  Still, I have never seen her miss.

• Away to prepare it for the young.

• This is not from the same sequence, but fits into the story line here well.

More to come.

All the usual warnings of images that contain material that may ‘offend’ some viewers, and the plea to be sure to contact the appropriate helpline.

Ahh, political correctness.

I have, it must be told not ever thought about Falconry as a pasttime.
Not the sport of the rich and regal, but rather the Falconer, and their intimate relationship with these amazing birds of prey.

That such a bird could in fact be domesticated in itself seems hard to grasp.

It is also true that I’ve never spent any more than a few glancing seconds with any of the falcon family (exception being Brown Falcons, but let’s face it, they don’t have the same mystic of the Peregrine or Hobby.)

So, to have a close encounter with a pair of Australian Hobbys (sic—my spelling of the plural) and their resulting young has been quite a thought provoking experience.  Over the past few weeks EE and I, Mr An Onymous, and Neil  A. have clocked up quite a few hours learning a little about their habits, character and approach to life.

In no particular order some bullet points from my field-notes.  I must stress this is not scientific research, and is quite anecdotal-bordering on the anthropomorphic. (Again the usual warnings also apply)

• Hobbys seem to like to sit on the highest branches available. If there is a higher one, they will move to it.
• Hobbys seem to favour nesting in the tallest tree in the area.  And they don’t build new nests, but rather inhabit existing, mostly magpie, nests.
• They have a wariness of humans, but at the same time seem to have developed an awareness of human habitation and used it for their benefit.  We regularly see a pair hunting through a supermarket carpark. Hard not to be impressed with a bird at over 70kph skimming over the parked vehicles.
• This pair have used the same area, and I think the same nest for at least the past three seasons.
•  The female sits the nest. The male brings in food.  Unlike other raptors she does not complain until he arrives. She is usually quiet.
• He too is quiet on arrival.  A couple of short croaky calls, and he then sits on an conspicuous branch and she quietly comes and removes the catch.
• They are both masters of efficiency.  A glide will do instead of a wing-flap. The change over is precise and almost instant.
• He always carefully watches after she takes the food, I have concluded that if she were to slip and it fell away, he would be on it before it had dropped more than a metre.
• This pair have feasted on Wattlebirds, Starlings, occasional Welcome Swallows and quite a parade of young Fairy Martins.  Also other larger birds that were unidentifiable as he had pre-plucked before arrival.
• Any passing raptor, or raven is chastised from afar, and if it still persists then one, or usually both, will take close quarter action. It consists of gaining height and rolling over into awesomely fast stoops on the interloper(s).
• I can’t find a reliable reference, but it seems they can clip along around 85-90 kph in a straight flight.  In a stoop, the speed might be as much as 150kph  or more. They are only short bursts, not the long running dive of the Peregrine.
• In Falconry, the male is called a “Tiercel”and Old English word meaning Third. Perhaps because he is as much as one third smaller than the female. Or is it she is one third larger?

From a bird I have had only the briefest of encounters with, it has given me quite an insight into why they could be trained and how much skill a falconer must have accumulated.

Here is an a couple of days activity before the young were flown.

Click on the Gallery for larger view and slide show.

The male, just arrived and after quietly calling he waits for her arrival

And he doesn’t have to wait long. It is such a smooth almost effortless exchange

She will feed herself, clean up the carcass and take it to the young.

Sweeping in.

Another meal on the go

Checking to make sure it is securely attached.

Off to feed the young

Well actually we (EE and I) are monitoring a pair of Hobbys. (Haven’t concluded if it should be Hobbies, or more realistically in this case, Hobbys—but you can see where I’m going with this)

A close cousin to their much more impressive and better documented relative, the Peregrine Falcon, it is easy to spot the similarities once they get into the air.

Speed and manoeuvrability being high on the comparison list.  I’ve had the chance to watch them a couple of days in some high winds, think 70-80kph. They fold back the primaries and run on very closely tucked wings, at speeds that are almost impossible to follow in the viewfinder.  A side-different to working with say, Black-shouldered Kites, that are by comparison, quite sedate.

They have a nest. And it’s high up in one of the tallest gums in the area. Cleverly placed in the multiple “Y” that gums sometimes make with 8-10 thin branches reaching out crownlike, and she has placed her nest securely in the little fortress.

Hard to gather how far advanced they are, but the past couple of days we’ve found her sitting less on the nest, so I’d be guessing her young are beginning to take on their first feathers.

Feeding appears to have its own rules.  He comes in laden with a catch. Sits on a particular branch and calls quietly to her.  After a suitable pause in events he moves to another tree, sits and waits.

Then the express train bursts out of the nest, or from the high-up perch where she has been surveying the scene, snatches the catch and sits on a branch just near him to consume her well earned meal. So far I think the count is mostly Red Wattlebirds, but today it was a Welcome Swallow.

She is head and shoulders bigger than he. Pretty typical among raptors, but really noticeable when they sit close-by.

After helping herself, she then flies directly to the nest and seems to be feeding small pieces from her beak, so another clue the young are not that advanced.

Lastly the thing that has impressed me is the super efficiency of them both. There are no wasted wingflaps, they glide from one tree to another, hardly using any energy.  But, when needed, the wings dig in and they are gone.

Warning: Photos contain some graphic feeding moments.