Thanks Wendy. It didn't appear to be swooping on prey, at least to my
(admittedly inexperienced) eyes - rather than coming in talons outstretched,
its landing appeared pretty ungainly and it immediately dropped its body and
wings to the ground, lying flat. Then again, maybe it was after some small
animal disturbed by the approaching car, and just misjudged its landing ...
Cheers,
Rory
-----Original Message-----
From: Wendy
Sent: Thursday, 4 September 2008 2:07 PM
To: Rory Buck; Baus
Subject: Swamp Harrier - strange behaviour?
This is purely speculative, BUT, there are documented cases (e.g. birds put
hard nuts on roads between traffic lights to have cars break them open)
where animals have learned to use us and our cars.
Could this bird have learnt that small prey is spooked or displaced by cars'
turbulence etc and is using cars to assist its hunting. Maybe it had dropped
onto such a prey item? Maybe as you did not continue on it decided to leave
though.
wendy
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