As I was driving into my driveway in Helensburgh (south of Royal NP)
tonight, about 4:30 pm and getting dark, I spotted a raptor in the
headlights and it flew off with a Currawong in it's talns and landed at
the top of the drive. (the drive is tree lined 70 m long and quite
steep). It stayed till there as I drove up the drive then stopped.
After running inside to grab binos, I spotted it the bush then it flew
again and I got the binos onto it once it landed. It was clearly either
a Brown Goshawk or a Collared sparrowhawk. It easily lifted the
currawong off the ground and was being followed by other currawongs
calling loudly. The currawong did not look overly large in its talons
an I would guess perched it looked currawong sized or slightly larger.
Talking to my neighbour he said he saw a hawk drop vertically onto the
drivway a few days ago and nab a myna.
Any ideas on whether this is likely to be a Brown Goshawk or a Collared
sparrowhawk? Or suggestions on the best way to tell them apart if I
spot it again?
rgds,
Chris Ross
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
