Funny you should mention this kind of suburban predation, Bill. My sister
lives on the river at Woodend in Ipswich, only a couple of minutes from the
CBD. She keeps chooks (free-range), guinea-pigs (semi-free-range!) and a
couple peachfaces in a cage under the open carport.
For some time now, their "livestock" has become the focus of attention for a
grey goshawk. In recent weeks, she has seen it perched in the yard on
several times, eyeing off the guinea-pigs and chooks (on one occasion, it
was sitting on a trellis just outside their front door). The final blow
came last Saturday, when it was caught red-handed (as it were), clinging to
the peachface's cage, with one dead, bleeding peachface on the bottom of the
cage. Somehow it had managed to kill the bird through the bars of the cage.
I just think it's truly wonderful that a grey goshawk should apparently be
resident (at least seasonally) in suburbia so close to the city centre.
Vicki PS
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Jolly <>
To: Birding Aus <>
Date: Tuesday, 16 May 2000 11:02
Subject: Square-tailed Kite
>A beautiful, well-coloured Square-tailed Kite was cruising the back gardens
>of Gatton yesterday morning, about 10 minutes east of us, in the Lockyer
>Valley .
>
>We followed him to & fro around residential
>streets for some time as he explored the back yards, quite harrier-like in
>his low, systematic criss-crossing.
>We wondered if he was after chooks; later someone mentioned that a lot of
>people free-range their guineapigs!
>
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