spotted harriers on the sunshine coast

["Greg Roberts" <>]

I have logged a dozen sightings of Spotted Harrier on the Sunshine Coast
over the past two months, including several birds seen from major roads.
Yesterday I almost collected one near the airport.
The species is usually a rare visitor to the wet coastal plain of southeast
Queensland so these occurrences are highly unusual. They coincide with a
spate of Eastern Grass-Owl records that I've knocked up in the region, and
large numbers of Black-shouldered Kites are about.
The indications are that these eruptions are related to an unusually good
season for some species of Rattus, and I wonder if anything similar is being
observed elsewhere along the coast in eastern Australia. The other
interesting question, of course, is how the birds know that the rats are
about.
Greg Roberts 
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www.birding-aus.org
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