We watch the creek every day from our verandahs. As well as plenty of coming
and going along the creek, there is also a much favoured log which regularly
serves as a vantage point for Azure Kingfishers, as well as a resting place
for cormorants, moorhens, turtles and others.
This limb emerges from the stream at around 45 degrees, then turns upwards
to maybe 70 degrees as it tapers to finish about a metre clear of the water.
This is the point which the kingfisher visits several times a day as he
proceeds from one creekside platform to another, and is also the point from
which cormorants like to hang out their wings. But being a pinnacle, there
is only ever room for one bird at the top, and there is often competition
for the spot
Two dramatic incidents occurred this-morning, both involving birds on this
favoured perch. The first concerned an Azure Kingfisher, the second involved
two Little Pied Cormorants. I will write about these in separate postings:
An Azure Kingfisher had been journeying between its usual vantage points
along the creek bank as we watched him leave a small overhanging casuarina
on the split-second journey to his regular mid-creek perch. Before the
kingfisher could drop his feet onto the log a Collared Sparrowhawk shot into
view from the trees on our side of the creek in an unsuccessful sortie aimed
at the kingfisher. A couple of seconds of confusion ensued then the
sparrowhawk returned to cover in a big Eucalyptus tesselaris in our main
garden, empty-taloned. Within less than a minute the undaunted Azure
Kingfisher was back on the mid-creek perch, and continuing his usual routine
along the creek. The Collared Sparrowhawk, which has been small passerines
around the garden for a couple of days, quietly flitted between several
trees, before heading out of sight.
This is not the first time we have watched an Azure Kingfisher under attack,
and for the sake of completeness, I am including a diary entry I made at
this time last year when a similar incident occurred involving an Azure
Kingfisher, an Australian Hobby and the same mid-creek perch.
* During breakfast an Azure Kingfisher appeared on the casuarina opposite,
sat, fished, sped away, reappeared on the limb that serves as a vantage
point in the middle of the creek, and generally came and went over the next
half-hour or so, sometimes there, sometimes not. An Australian Hobby scythed
into view, through the tesselaris and away from us high along the creek
heading west at speed. A moment later the Kingfisher reappeared on the
mid-creek limb, and suddenly the Hobby was there, arcing down at enormous
speed onto the Kingfisher! The action was so fast and the shock so stunning
that we are not clear just what happened. Within a couple of seconds, the
Hobby had swept around and was away swiftly along the creek, back to the
west. Of the Kingfisher there was no sign. At the moment of impact, if there
was one, a big splash occurred beneath the birds. Did the Kingfisher escape?
Did he fall stunned into the water? Did both birds hit the water before the
Hobby carried his prey off for eating? We watched the creek and its margins
closely for much of the morning, but with no sign of the Kingfisher.
As a footnote, we didn't see any Azure Kingfisher for a week or so after the
Hobby incident, and when a kingfisher did reappear we had no way of knowing
if it was the bird involved. Interesting isn't it that we wanted the
kingfisher to escape, but we also want the BOPs to come here and to be
successful. It's one of those mixed feeling situations, like watching a tree
snake eating a Green Tree Frog.
Bill Jolly
"Abberton", Helidon, Qld
ph 07 46976111
fax 07 46976056
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