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Edwin Vella quotes that Black Falcons are
"cavalier,active,audacious and forever ready to provoke an
incident"
Reminded me of a couple of "incidents" that
I've witnessed here (near Pyramid Hill,N.Vic).
I was watching a Black-shouldered Kite in the top
of a sugar gum just returned from a successful mouse hunt.It then started
screeching and carrying on,turning it's head to look skyward.I could see nothing
obvious but it continued calling in an alarmed way.I then spotted a Black
Falcon still quite high up(or was it a stealth bomber!?).It proceeded to decend
quite rapidly at which point the Kite took off.As the Black Falcon closed in the
Kite dropped it's meal,still screeching and managed to avoid the close attention
of the Falcon as it swooped by.Strangely the BF didn't seem too interested in
the dropped mouse.Perhaps it was just being a bully!
In Feb 2001 I spotted 2 Black Falcons circling high
up in a thermal.After watching them for some time I noticed a Little Eagle in
the same thermal.They circled around together and then I saw another raptor,and
another.2 Brown Falcons had joined the party.By this time I'd well and tru;y set
up my deckchair to enjoy the spectacle.Incredibly another raptor then
appeared...a Spotted Harrier.At this point the birds were rising fast.I watched
until they were dots in the atmosphere and finally they
disappeared!!!
I watched and waited. It was some time before a dot
reappeared.A Brown Falcon was re-entering the atmosphere!,it must have dropped a
thousand feet in a few seconds and came back to it's home patch(a few Black Box
trees across the road).
Were the Black Falcons the instigators of this
spectacle?!
Cheers Simon Starr.
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