|
As someone once observed, the West Belconnen suburbs are pretty good
for raptors, probably due to their proximity to the Murrumbidgee &
Molonglo River corridors.
Anyhow, at 6:30AM today, there was a tiny male Collared Sparrowhawk perched
in upper branches of the still bare White Cedar tree in the backyard while six
Common Mynas preened away quite unconcernedly in the lower branches.
Early afternoon, at the Parkwood Road horse paddocks, I saw a perched Brown
Falcon which had me intrigued for a while because it was a light morphed
bird - I think I got that _expression_ correct. At the same location
I watched a dark raptor fly overhead. Soon as I arrived home, I checked the
books, but can only tentatively suggest it was a Black Falcon. Seem to
recall a wiser ornithological head once told me that a few Black Falcons pass
through here but later during the summer. So, maybe this was a early bird,
or maybe Audubon John is being a bit presumptuous with his raptor
identification.
Finally, again just before dark, we watched 'our' Australian Hobby flitting
about the area, but this time it didn't land on the street standard.
John Layton
|
