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I
believe the boobook sitting on power lines up the backyard of our new place in
Scullin for the last couple of weeks may be taking advantage of the same
increase in mouse numbers. I know things look big in the
dark but sometimes I'm just not sure........or sometimes I wish. I
disturbed it with the torch in the first week but didn't get a good look as I
didn't want to blind it.
Haven't seen the Rainbow Lorikeets for a few weeks
either after noticing pairs and threes all day for the first couple of
weeks. I wonder where they go?
When I drove to Boorowa last
weekend I saw over 30 black shouldered kites. The most I have ever noticed.
There seems to have been an influx recently. Not sure when it started, perhaps
the GBS data will say. Esteban Fuentes talked at the Field Nats last year and
his feeding study on Birds of Prey showed that nankeen kestrels and black
shouldered kites had a different diet, nankeen eating mainly insects and BSK
eating mice, small reptiles. I have had a mouse plague in my yard recently and
perhaps this is linked to BSK immigration (well
not just my yard- heh heh). Nankeen kestrels nest in hollows and BSK in
stick nests.
These factors suggest they don't
compete, yet I have not seen a nankeen kestrel for a while now. I suspect the
two species do still compete, and perhaps when one is common the other
leaves.
I thought John Ls comments on the
BSK mating were interesting and am not sure why there were no replies. With only
a few professional birders on the list I suspect it wasn't related to having a
University degree or not. Lots of emails arnt replied
to.
Benj
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