I was birding with an interstate visitor at Luggage Point (near the
mouth of the Brisbane River). We had turned up a few target species
and were looking for Chestnut-breasted Mannikins [I had seen them
there a couple of years ago]. There was a lot of water about from the
heavy rain that substantially filled SEQ's water storages, making it
harder for find the little chaps.
We had flushed a couple of finch-sized birds, but they weren't sitting
up on the top of the grass and they weren't calling. We flushed
another one, and it flew in a fluttering fashion, before settling out
of sight in the grass. I figured I would photograph it on the wing.
I was just switching my camera over to manual focus when I heard my
companion exclaim that a raptor had pinched had pinched the bird. I
turned around and managed to get a few photographs of a brown raptor
flying off. (I've placed a picture on ABID - it should be available
shortly)
The distant raptor sitting in a tree that I had carelessly dismissed
as a kestrel turned out to be a hobby. Given that the cistacola [I
subsequently photographed another one that had been behaving
similarly] wasn't in the air for long, I was surprised that the hobby
had been close enough to pick it off from a point several metres from
me. It must have observed the cistacola flush the first time and
moved in so that it could catch it the second time it rose.
Moral: don't flush rarities when raptors are about. The bird might be
pinched before you can tick it.
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