Lacey's Creek
Monday 13 June
Driving up-valley at sunset along a quiet, dairy-country road, I was
amazed at the sight of 100+ Magpie-Larks, clothing a section of
telegraph wire back from the road. This would be one of Simpson &
Day's loose autumn-winter flocks. So down the road a-ways, I u-turned
-- In the short time it took me to come gliding back into the verge,
the birds had lifted off the wires and were descending, a flickering
cloud, into a dense, dark tree right by the roadside, perhaps to
roost the night there. Some birds had already disappeared into the
tree as I scrunched to a halt -- But, just then, from behind me, low
& fast, came a raptor that blew into the flock & crashed through into
the tree. The birds exploded in disarray, each bird shooting away
from the impact-point. I saw the shadow of the raptor moving through
the tree. Meanhile, the confused escapees were re-gathering, & fled
screaming, to clothe a dead tree one paddock away.
In moments, the raptor emerged, carrying nothing, and over
ten minutes or so swooped away from tree to tree, in low loops,
skulking within each tree from one side to the other. A Brown
Goshawk, perhaps?
The Magpie-Larks had all gone silent & disappeared into the dusk.
Judith.
--
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Judith L-A
S-E Qld
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