Eric,
As long as you're sure about your ID then there's no problem. Grey Falcons'
main range is the very centre: southern NT, Simpson Desert, Channel Country,
extreme NW NSW &c &c, but in drought years they wander widely; one was at
Griffith, NSW for some time a couple of years back, and a very reliable
Canberra birdo recently reckoned he saw one over the Botanical Gardens in
Canberra. They do wander anywhere where solid forest isn't, so there would
be no problem in one getting to Maldon, as cleared farm-land is, sadly,
rather similar, structurally and ecologically, to desert (the GF's preferred
habitat).
The reason why they aren't seen more often is because they are crushingly
rare, only a few thousands birds in all. They're very hard to find, even in
their preferred habitat, and when they wander, they're just a handful of
birds in a very large area, so they're hardly ever seen. I expect your
record is making a great many birdos on birding-aus tear their hair out in envy.
I've seen one GF, an immature just south of Sturt National Park, had very
good views, and it was one of the great birding experiences of my life, make
that one of the great experiences of my life.
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John Leonard (Dr),
PO Box 243,
Woden, ACT 2606
'I thought of New York as a Hemlock forest that had
been logged too heavily....'
Murray Gell-Mann
http://www.spirit.net.au/~jleonard
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