Sunday the 28th Dec my partner and I went up to Malden in the Victorian spa
country. While I was fishing on the Lodden River (can be more specific if
was to check a map) I disturbed a falcon.
I was fortunate enough to get a clear inflight look of his back and
underside and am positive of my call. Imagine my surprise when I double
checked this with my field guide (Simpson and Day) and the book listed the
Grey Falcon as 'rare'.
Just how rare is sighting a Grey Falcon? OK, besides the obvious fact that
it's the only one I've seen in my life.
And before everyone jumps all over me, I have considered a Grey/White
Goshawk (wrong wings) and I first thought it was a Black-shouldered Kite
(size, firstly, no black on either upper or lower wing, upper body including
tail was all solid grey). Underside was pretty uniform, so going by my
guide book it was older than first year.
Also, I've been fortunate enough to see both the goshawk and kite before and
this was undoubtedly a falcon.
BTW, I'm glad to have found this group. There was rather a dirth of Aus
content on the Usenet birding NGs.
--
Eric Hocking "A closed mouth gathers no feet."
Remove "nospam." from address to email.
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~ehocking/
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