Susan,
I wouldn’t say its particularly common, but Henry Nix and I wrote a short note about it in a note in Canberra Bird Notes* many years ago (late 70s/80s). On that occasion they were hawking after many orange-‘winged’ flying beetles over Lake Burley Griffin. We
didn’t identify the beetles on that occasion, but from what I remember they were probably Lycid beetles, possibly Porrostoma sp. (you can look that species up online on Canberra Nature Map). Those beetles, or very similar-looking ones, were irrupting in large
numbers on that occasion. It would be interesting to know whether its the same or a similar beetle genus this time.
*I can’t give you the reference to the note in CBN now, but could do so if anyone’s interested
Cheers,
Ian Baird
From: Susan Robertson [
Sent: Wednesday, 16 November 2016 4:31 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Silver Gulls
This afternoon in the area of Parkes Way, ANU and the lake, there were 100 plus Silver Gulls flying about. They looked to be hawking for insects although I couldn’t see any obvious insects. However I could see some gulls flying with their
beaks open so I assume that’s what was going on. HANZAB mentions hawking behaviour. They were in this area for about an hour. Is this common behaviour?
Cheers,
Susan Robertson
