Lorne and other birders,
I have seen a number of Grey Falcon over the years but two stay in my mind.
The first was about 1976 at Baradine (central NW NSW), I was driving on a
farm road and came to a gate, I had to get out to open the gate and as I did
I flushed a Pipit, and as it flew off a bird took off from a nearby
telephone pole and dived at the Pipit and another bird swooped in too! They
were both Grey Falcons, one looking more blue than the other and I think the
Pipit survived!. I had initially seen the bird on the pole and my cursory
glance had told me that it was a Black-shouldered Kite! I was wrong!
Obviously it was a bird that looked white front on! I then had good views of
a pair of Grey Falcons swooping around, half chasing each other for several
minutes.
The last view was only late in May 2000 near White Cliffs. As our car went
through a dry creek crossing, a raptore flew across from right to left.
There were plenty of Spotted Harriers around at the time, and as this bird
banked, I saw the grey back and assumed at first that I was looking at a
Spotted Harrier. I then realised that the wings were pointed, they were dark
at the tip and the bird was in fact a Grey Falcon it hot pursuit of
Budgerigars? We all saw it climb up over the trees along the creek and then
disappeared not to be found again even though we returned to this site
twice again. The driver got the best views as he saw that it was a Grey
Falcon as it crossed in front of the car, I was in the back seat!
Alan Morris
|
