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On a trip to Orange last week, 2 interesting
sightings and one that amazed me.
1. Just N of Cowra on the Canowindra Rd a Spotted
Harrier on the wing over old stubble.
2. Peregrine Falcon with prey (Starling ?) in
talons flying over suburban Orange.
3.On the Canowindra/Cargo/Orange Rd I spotted a
Wedge Tailed Eagle on the ground in a cereal crop. I wondered if it had
killed a rabbit or hare (the crop was too tall to see). 200m further on
there was another WTE between the road and fence also sitting on the
ground. I had a sinking feeling as I pulled up and walked back up the road
as I expected to find it had been in a collision with a car. As I
approached, it flew up with something in its talons and dropped it before
reaching fence height. The WTE left the scene. The bundle was 2
young Crows, just about fully feathered but in my view not at the flying
stage. One was dead and the other OK but clinging tightly to its dead
sibling. I located the 2WTEs in a tree further down the valley and they
were being harrassed by 2 Crows (Aust Ravens). On returning two days
later, the dead juvenille was unmoved and a Crow was calling in a nearby tree
but I didn't have time to look for a living Juvenille.
So what happened. I have a theory. The
WTEs raided the nest of the Crows and one WTE took 1 sibling and the other also
took 1 but the third sibling got a free ride by hanging on with a vice like grip
to its dead sibling.
Question. Have WTE ever been recorded as nest
raiders? Is there another explanation for the situation I
found?
I also saw a flight of 8 Supurb Parrots just S of
Boorowa.
Graeme Clifton
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