It never ceases to amaze me, the amount of wildlife we get in our yard here on the Northern Beaches of Sydney.
Today around lunch time the local noisy minors started going apeshut, much more than they do all day at the Rainbow Lorakeets, Kookaburra's, Magpie's, Crows, and Cockatoo's. I went out and had a look, and there was a pair of mature Pacific Baza's in the trees.
I've never seen Pacific Baza's before, and the book I have lists them as uncommon, and rarely sighted as far South as Sydney. It also says they are mostly sedentary, so this pair may live around here. They flew quite gracefully, one even swooping down on to a low branch and eating what appeared to be a Mantis of some type. A few fairly average picture below.
About 5pm, my wife pointed straight up and said "Look at that, there's a bird coming in". I looked up and say a Darter, legs down, and doing tight spirals coming straight down. Just above rooftop level it flapped and flew across into the neighbour's yard. I've never seen a Darter around here before either.
Cheers,
Jason.
