David Dedenczuk and I walked out to Yankee Hat this morning from the end of Old Boboyan Road (bird list at
https://ebird.org/australia/view/checklist/S53311021). We didn’t see any Hobby (but we had seen a pair earlier on Nass Road). We did see four Kestrel flying as a group, a Brown Goshawk, a Brown
Falcon (a very dark bird), two Wedge-tailed Eagle and two Swamp Harrier. The adult harrier was hassling one of the eagles, then one of the Kestrel joined in.
Shorty – seems as though you got the impression that the Hobby was treating the Noisy Friarbird as prey, and the picture certainly shows an attack. But I would have thought that a friarbird was rather
large prey for a Hobby – I’m more used to them catching grasshoppers and dragonflies…?
Regards
Steve
From: shorty <>
Sent: Sunday, 3 March 2019 6:02 PM
To: COG Chat <>
Subject: [canberrabirds] Hobby vs Noisy Friarbird
After a visit to Mount Clear ( 6 Needletails seen ) I pulled into Old Boboyan Road for a quick look.
After going across the low level crossings i noticed a Hobby so pulled up and got out of the car to get some pics. It turned out there were 2 Hobbys and i watched them flying around catching Grasshoppers often eating them on the fly. A
Noisy Friarbird was calling from a perch in a nearby tree and soon took flight. A Hobby took off chasing the Friarbird and made contact but except for quite a few feathers lost the Hobby did not get his prey. The Friarbird continued with the Hobby chasing
it but the Friarbird made it to a tree just in time.
During this time i also saw 3 Wedge-tailed Eagle, 2 Brown Goshawk (chasing Starlings) and a Nankeen Kestrel swooping the now perched Brown Goshawk.
A quick stop at the Yankee Hat carpark there were Dusky and White-browed Woodswallow with young.
Due to distance not a good pic but include the point of impact shot.
