Wow Carl! That is cool!
I was intrigued by the small birds' reaction - they wouldn't often see a jaeger
so was it a reaction to the predator bird's behaviour, or a general reaction to
an unknown predator?
Thanks, Janine
JANINE DUFFY Director Marketing & Research
ECHIDNA WALKABOUT PO Box 370 Port Melbourne 3207 AUSTRALIA
Email: Web: www.echidnawalkabout.com.au
Tel: +61 (0)3 9646 8249 Fax: +61 (0)3 9681 9177 ABN: 72 716 985 505
Sent via Blackberry
-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Clifford <>
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:44:58
To: <>
Cc: Birding-aus<>
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Alarm calls and our reaction to them
Hi Janine,
Had a similar experience here at Gorokan, NSW Central Coast some years
ago. I was sitting in the back yard, with only the usual chatter from
the local birds, when there was a raptor alert from the Noisy Miners
followed by several other species. at the peak of the ruckus, a
Pomarine Jaeger sailed over low.
Small rodents are their main prey on their nesting grounds, so perhaps
some occasionally get sick of fish and look for a rodent takeaway.
Carl Clifford
On 17/12/2013, at 11:25 AM, Janine Duffy wrote:
I think its amazing how well we humans come to understand the alarm
calls of our local birds.
Recently I was out for a run in my local park in port Melbourne when I
heard the 'Raptor above' alarm go up. Without thinking I looked up,
searched the dark, stormy skies, only to see a fairly big Silver Gull.
The alarms intensified and reached proportions that I've rarely heard.
Every small bird was involved. I was confused - this was not a
reaction to a gull. So I kept looking in the sky thinking maybe
something much bigger was up very high.
The gull kept circling over, and the alarms perfectly followed it. I
got my small, fairly useless, running binoculars up. The 'gull' wasn't
- it was darker, with longer wings, big heavy shoulders and a slightly
wedge-shaped tail. It was a bit bigger than a Silver Gull.
Eventually it stopped circling around and disappeared. I think it was
a Jaeger.
The wind that day was a howling Southerly, and I was only 500m from
the beach, but even so I didn't know Jaegers hunted inland. This bird
certainly was looking out for something and the small birds were
highly aware of that.
I wished I'd seen more or had a camera!
Janine
JANINE DUFFY Director Marketing & Research
ECHIDNA WALKABOUT PO Box 370 Port Melbourne 3207 AUSTRALIA
Email: Web: www.echidnawalkabout.com.au
Tel: +61 (0)3 9646 8249 Fax: +61 (0)3 9681 9177 ABN: 72 716 985 505
Sent via Blackberry
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