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Old 17-05-2019, 12:36 PM
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mental4astro (Alexander)
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Smile Raptors where you live

Hi all,

A little out of left field this one. I just had a lovely wildlife experience right over my home just moments ago and I thought I'd share my thrill.

I live across the road from a large park here in Sydney's east, and in close proximity to the rugged coastline. Birdlife is bountiful, and I readily hear all manner of calls, including when some heavy stuff is going down with the birdlife.

So far I've seen a family of kestrels regularly hunt in the park. Local birds pay no attention to them.

I have also seen a peregrine falcon at work. When this speedster is out, every bird disappears and you won't hear a chirp until the falcon had either moved on or until you hear its shrill when its smashed a poor bird on the wing, firmly trapped in the falcon's talons.

Boobok owls I occasionally hear in the dead of night.

Just know I heard an almighty cafaful right overhead. Noisey minas, crows, pied shriekers, magpies, flaming everything, all at the same time! What the heck was going on!? I half expected to see some kookaburra being bullied as I've often seen, but when I looked up, the avian crap-fight was happening on the wing, and every flaming bird in the neighborhood was tormenting a Brown Falcon, a raptor I had never seen here before!

So, now I've seen a bit of a raptor hierarchy. Kestrels are no threat. Peregrine falcons rule the sky and everything on the wing is scared pooless. But with the brown falcon, all the locals get cocky and mob violence is the norm as they reckon they are safe in numbers to harass it to move on I'm sure none of them would be so cocky if they were one-on-one with the brown!

What raptors frequent where you live?

Alex.
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Old 17-05-2019, 01:23 PM
el_draco (Rom)
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I worked with Raptors for decades doing both research and rehab. I developed a trap for Peregrines so that a researcher could do DNA surveys. Same with White Bellied Sea Eagles. I had Eagles, Falcons and Owls in rehab for a number of years. Beautiful, majestic animals... but so dangerous, especially when injured. DON'T EVER TRY TO GRAB ONE; virtually guaranteed you will regret it. I've had to enlist several people with pliers to remove talons from my hands.

One of the most humbling experiences you can have is to release a full grown eagle and watch it fly away. To old for it now but I live in the bush so I get wedge tailed eagles regularly, various falcons, harriers and several owl species hang around, including Boobooks and Masked Owls.

There is a pair of White Goshawks with a territory in my valley. They are the toughest birds I have ever encountered, and by far the most dangerous. Pure white with ruby eyes and inch long talons... Had one in rehab for six months and I swear it was trying to work out how to get me the whole time. It did in the end and I have the scars to prove it. It survived to fly again despite multiple metal pins in its wing.
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Old 17-05-2019, 02:21 PM
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AstralTraveller (David)
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We sometimes get Little Eagles in the area. I might see them a couple of times over a month or so then nothing for months. They predate on sulphur-crested cockies ... and don't the cockies know it. If I ever hear the cockies going berko I check for an eagle. Generally it's not - it's just cockies making noise - but sometimes I get a great view. I've seen an eagle go over me about 20m up. Also sometimes see peregrines. One day we watched one repeatedly swoop a nearby backyard. My suggestion is that there was some terrified pet guinea pigs or rabbits in a hutch in that yard.
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Old 17-05-2019, 03:21 PM
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Our raptors are a little worrisome...
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Old 17-05-2019, 06:29 PM
Wavytone
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Just add wings to that Lewis, be very afraid.
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Old 17-05-2019, 06:42 PM
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We have whistling kites living about 400m away that circle over the neighbourhood.
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Old 20-05-2019, 03:53 PM
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A peregrine falcon (or so I was told by a chap) used to nest on the side of a building where I worked. Every so often you'd see a gentle rain of pigeon feathers come floating down like snowflakes...
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Old 20-05-2019, 06:42 PM
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The farm where i used to work near byron had a few wedgetails in the area every other bird flys low and fast when there on the wing , you got so used to the change in behaviour you'd know before you looked up.


They also sometimes attack hang gliders in the area, guy i knew said one once got a good puchase on the the edge of his kite and started tearing it ,, how much fun would that be .
Very majestic huge birds , just recently i saw the local pair lock feet and spiral through the sky together for fun .
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Old 20-05-2019, 07:30 PM
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mental4astro (Alexander)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gaseous View Post
A peregrine falcon (or so I was told by a chap) used to nest on the side of a building where I worked. Every so often you'd see a gentle rain of pigeon feathers come floating down like snowflakes...
Pat, you just reminded me of a peregrine I once saw circle around Hyde Park in central Sydney, and land on the top southeast corner of the tall Supreme Court building that overlooks Hyde Park, St Mary's Cathedral and the Domain - one heck of a perch! Flaming terror for every pigeon in the City!
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Old 20-05-2019, 07:35 PM
Wavytone
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One of my most memorable paragliding flights was a morning where I launched from Mt Blackheath, spiralled up to cloud base at 2000m and then headed out west towards Jenolan...

As I fanged it "pedal to the metal", looked out to my right wingtip to see I had company - the local wedgie was doing likewise, looking at me, looking at him, looking at me. We flew like that, tip to tip, for the best part of 20 minutes when he out climbed me at the next cloud.
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Old 20-05-2019, 07:36 PM
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muletopia (Chris)
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a raptor misses out

On a day with a gentle easterly wing I was in my kayak on a local river pool.
The pool is perhaps 750 metres long and 25-30 wide, it is east west and the downstream end is in the west.

I had paddled upstream and disturbed a collection of swans,ducks and water hens.
They relocated to the western end of the pool.
Just before the western end is a left hand curve when going down wind. I paddled to the curve near the southern bank and stopped paddling so as to drift silently around the corner.
Of course with usual stream morphology the bank on the inside of the curve was gently sloped and the outside bank was steep and had tree deposited during floods lying along it and small jarrahs growing near the bank..
What happened nest was a treat to behold.


First the swans flapped mightily,ran on the surface and decamped back to the eastern end, they were followed by the ducks and finally the water hen. By that time I was at the apex of the curve so the hens, keeping as far as possible from me took off near the timber on the outside of the curve, flying about a foot above the water.


A goshawk that had been perched in on of the jarrahs swooped and just as in good nature films the hawk leant back a large pair of orange claws grabbed an unfortunate hen. The hawk then had to climb rapidly to clear the timber. It failed. The hen it the timber and was dropped.
The hen than raced off after its mates and the hawk departed the scene. I looked up to follow the hawk and lo, there was a wedge tailed eagle circling watching the whole performance.


The trials of a raptor.


Chris
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Old 20-05-2019, 07:36 PM
Wavytone
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One of my most memorable paragliding flights was a morning where I launched from Mt Blackheath, locked into the resident thermal and spiralled up to cloud base at 2000m...

...as I got into the thermal I didn't realise I was being followed... until I levelled out and went "pedal to the metal" west towards Jenolan... looked out to my right wingtip to see - the local wedgie had joined in. Him looking at me, looking at him, looking at me.

We flew straight like that, tip to tip, for the best part of 20 minutes till he out-climbed me at the next cloud as his turning circle was tighter

Magic.

One thing is interesting - when gliding the wedgies observe the same rules in thermals and will follow the gliders - first one in sets the turn pattern (left or right spiral), and the rest follow the same, spiralling for the climb up. It's kind of obvious thing to do, if you fly at about the same airspeed and can turn tight enough to fly formation with them. Hang-gliders can't though, as their airspeed is a lot higher, and their turning radius much larger.

The one trick the PG pilots had if a wedgie got aggressive was to hit the brakes and fly slowly... most PG's can fly below the stall speed of the wedge tails, then go dive into a series of wingovers or a full-on spiral dive at 4G's, which the eagles can't follow.

Last edited by Wavytone; 20-05-2019 at 07:56 PM.
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Old 20-05-2019, 08:15 PM
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We have sea eagles over the sea near us, and occasionally resting In the day on sewer main vent stacks with young birds and in the trees. At night boobook owls along with the unmistakable powerful owl calls with the occasional half possum dinner dropped here and there, but no sightings. Would not like to argue with a powerful owl.

The most sea eagles in one place I have seen is from a sea kayak in Myall Lakes. The young ones are diving from trees while adults circle.

Last edited by Sunfish; 20-05-2019 at 08:18 PM. Reason: Corrected
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Old 20-05-2019, 08:38 PM
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mental4astro (Alexander)
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A little boobook gave me the fright of my life one night.

My missus sent up to the corner store to get some milk for the kiddies. We lived in Paddington at the time. Walking back down the dark winding street I was enjoying the warm sweet scented air from the blooming jasmine & deep in thought when all of a sudden something swooped up at me as I approached a frangipani tree! Damn near crapped myself!

After I calmed down, I had a closer look at what was inside the frangipani - it was a little boobook! Why would a boobook park itself there in the middle of Paddo? Didn't take much to figure out why. Immediately across the street was a tiny little park - the frangipani was the perfect vantage point for the prowling owl just waiting for any unsuspecting mouse or rat wandering through the darkened park, unaware of the terror spying on them not 15m away...
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Old 21-05-2019, 08:16 AM
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AstralTraveller (David)
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We also get lots of Tawny Frogmouths about the place. They are pretty calm around people and in my quiet back yard I've been up to 2-3m from them. Sometimes I don't even notice them if I'm wandering about looking at the sky, especially when there is no moon. The other night one was on the washing trolley and I was 3-4 steps from it before I saw it. (Hmmm ... do I have mice in the garden?)
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