My wife and I are currently on the Barkly Tablelands, nearing the end of a
two year photographic birdathon. Following a tip I travelled north of the
Barkly Roadhouse in search of the elusive Grey Falcon, one of which we saw
at Alice Springs but no photo. Arriving at the site I counted over 200
Black Kites, together with Swamp Harrier, Whistling Kites, Australian Hobby,
Black-shouldered Kite, Kestrel and Brown Falcon. In the region we also
located Brown Goshawk and Black-breasted Buzzard. The Black Kites were
simply thermalling and were not observed to attack prey such as mice.
On the journey to the site I found and recovered a very freshly dead Barn
Owl beside the road. It was still warm and no rigor mortis had set in. It
had a significant chest wound and I suspected a raptor attack. I retained
the body (in the Waeco to my wife's dismay!) for further examination.
This morning, returning to the site we located a further 3 dead Barn Owls in
the space of 5 kilometres. All appeared to be roadkill without any visible
trauma. The deceased birds have been measured, weighed and photographed and
the details forwarded to Birdlife Aus. If any reader has an interest they
may contact us off-page. We will be revisiting the area tonight in an
attempt to locate live birds and to observe, perhaps, the reason for their
presence.
Paul and Jean Newman
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