As it Happened – Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST

As it Happened: Six Young Kites

September 13, 2023Posted in As it Happened, Black-shouldered KiteTagged As it Happened, Black-shouldered Kite12 Comments

With a welcome change in the weather for a sunny morning without wind, we went to check on the young carpark Kite of Madeline and Mike.

They are now old enough to fend for themselves, so we didn’t expect to see them in the old hometree.

A little searching found them in the air about 700m down the paddock. So we trudged on down. Trudged of course is a euphemism for went with high expectations and we weren’t disappointed.

As we began to count Kites in the air and on the fence posts, it became apparent that there were two families of Kites working in the paddock as we could see at any one time, six young either sitting or flying about. There was also just one adult, and its likely that this one was not Mike and he is now kept busy further afield suppling the incubating Madeline.

The six seemed to get on together pretty well, and it gave them plenty of chances for hunting as well as mock aerial battles. The young fence sitters seemed to do a lot of tail-lifting, which is a sign of territory ownership, so each one was aware of the presence of the others.

Unsure where the other three would have come from as suitable trees are a bit of a rarity in the long paddocks.

They were all happy to work from the fence posts, and allow either close approaches, or fly in close on their own. A main access track and walking trail is about a chain (about 20m) from the fences on both sides and the track are well used by walker and bicycle riders so the young were quite human tolerant.

And in the warm sunshine, with plenty of action, time just drifted by and two hours later we did trudged back to IamGrey for a spot of the Earl’s best.

As it Happened: Working Girl

July 20, 2023Posted in As it Happened, Australian MagpieTagged As it Happened, Australian Magpie9 Comments

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

A flurry of feathers and she is out for another load of material.

Airborne, simply gliding away from the nest site

No time to rest and enjoy the view. Work to be done

Precision Flying to deliver in exactly the right spot

Endless rounds for a most important activity ahead. We wondered if she was installing wifi, nbn and wall tv.

Enjoy

As it Happened: Defending the Territory

July 17, 2023Posted in As it Happened, Australian Magpie, Black-shouldered Kite, UncategorizedTagged As it Happened, Australian Magpie, Black-shouldered Kite13 Comments

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.

The Raven was hoping it was going to be safe under the tree to work on the nest.

Maddie had other ideas, and it was time for it to move on.

The alpha female Magpie came, perhaps to negotiate, but that wasn’t going to happen

But returned and tried to look as intimidating as possible.

In the end, they both landed and decided on their next tactic.

The victor, after 6 rounds. (at least). Maggie moved on. Madeline was already eyeing off the passing Falcons.

As it Happened: Kite v Ravens

July 14, 2023July 14, 2023Posted in As it Happened, Black-shouldered Kite, Little RavenTagged As it Happened13 Comments

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.