The house crow at Phillip Island, Victoria

[Laurence Living <>]

Hi Stuart and birding-aus

Nick Day ['Simpson and Day'] and I spent this morning at The Nobbies end of Phillip Island [some 120 kms south of Melbourne]  looking for the House Crow without luck.

Nick was the first birder to see the Crow about January 17 and  saw it for a third time on Sunday
Jan 28 along with others.

We saw flocks  of ravens [made up mostly of Little with occasional Australian] foraging systematically from Cowie beach on the bay side and from the Seal rocks centre on the Bass Strait side moving up and down the ridges towards the Penguin centre at Somerlands. The birds appeared to be foraging around the penguin burrows, perhaps looking for 'bits of dinner' that didn't make it to the chicks, and possibly dead birds. They also appeared to be feeding on both red and purple berries.

Driving around the loop and across the interesecting roads would not be sufficient to see all the 70-80 birds we found[ and the ones we didn't] without checking the penguin burrow slopes coming up from the beaches and rocks.

It was getting hot so by midday most of the ravens had left the peninsula, moved through the penguin reserve car park and stopped in Swan Lake and moved onto a shady roost somewhere.

We saw few ravens anywhere else on the island, which is currently dry and bare, so with the concentration of birds at the penguin end, good chances of fresh food first thing in the morning, it is possible that the House Crow is still there.

There were a number of juvenile ravens, not to be mistaken with the Crow.

We tried to beat your raptor feat but had to be content with a draw.......brown falcon, whistling kite, black-shouldered kite, brown goshawk, swamp harrier....missed on kestrel and peregrine falcon but were blessed with hobby and great views of black falcon.

Nick will have a report in 'The Bird Observer'.

Meanwhile keep looking everyone.

Laurie Living