Bird Week Day 5 - A Peregrine & Pardalote Day, Phillip Island birds

"Peregrine" and "Pardalote"- two gorgeous sounding words that also just happen to be associated with the most wonderful of creatures!

Falco peregrinus arises from the Latin per and agri - literally "from abroad" or subsequently "wandering". I gather the northern hemisphere peregrines are inclined to migrate. I had jumped out of the car recently at Oswin Roberts Sanctuary (Phillip Island) and had one of those great car park moments when you know the birds are "on"! Looking up I saw the silhouette of a falcon purposefully gliding across the small arc of sky I had vision of. 'Grabbed the camera and managed one shot:

Peregrine falcon flying over Oswin Roberts Sanctuary

My impression is that the name "Pardalote" is a name known only to birders or those that have had a close experience with these beautifully marked birds. I  gather that Pardalotus refers to being "spotted" and arises from Greek origins. Although I could hear many Spotted pardalote on this day at Oswin Roberts (I am inclined to think of it as Ozzie Bob's) it was the Striated pardalote that was providing most photo opportunities:

Striated pardalote checking out tree-hollow nesting options, September 2013

The next three photos were taken within a minute or two of each other when passing through a small-bird hot spot!

Brown thornbill, Oswin Roberts Sanctuary

White-browed scrub wren, Oswin Roberts Sanctuary

Superb fairy-wren, Oswin Roberts Sanctuary

Oswin Roberts Sanctuary is also good for honeyeaters (in addition to those shown Wattlebirds, White-eared honeyeaters are also common) ...

Still struggling for a decent photo of White-naped honeyeater I'm afraid

New Holland honeyeater

Yellow-faced honeyeater

I generally don't leave Ozzie Bobs without seeing an Eastern Yellow Robin at some stage

Dusky woodswallow numbers are seasonal - they are starting to increase again now that Spring is here

Fan-tailed cuckoo 

Grey currawong

iPhone shot of the park's eastern boundary and adjacent farmland where Swamp harriers and Whistling kite are often seen.

Whistling kite

Even by Ozzie Bob standards this was a pretty productive morning!

Sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday

Bird on!

Phillip Island raptors

'Enjoyed several encounters with raptors at Phillip Island at the weekend. I was driving along a gravel backroad and went past this car-stopper. The Brown falcon hung around briefly while I cricked my neck trying to photograph it out the car window having stopped 20 metres further on.

Brown falcon, Phillip Island

Sprung!

Ready for take-off! Brown falcon, Pyramid Rock Rd, Phillip Island, 7th April 2013

I'm glad I stopped! I was also looking foward to checking out photos taken of a fast moving but silhouetted falcon seen at Swan Lake .....

Peregrine falcon (immature), Swan Lake, Phillip Island

Bird on!

Peregrine falcon vs Whistling kite

A few slow birding days (too hot, too windy, too tired) so I would like to recount an hitherto unposted experience from 18 October last year.

This episode occurred at an otherwise pretty miserable looking place called Kow Swamp in northern Victoria (I believe it can be a birding paradise if the conditions are right, you have a boat or are prepared to wade). The course of events was as follows:

4.32pm
Viewing and photographing Whistling kite in flight while parked at the Lions Club picnic area.

Whistling kite (Haliastur sphenurus)

4.38pm
Drove away from picnic area but had travelled no further then 400m when surprised by an imposing looking bird in a roadside tree-top.

Peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus)

4.39pm

Falcon flies off - "So much for that!" I think. I jump back in the car vaguely aware that the Peregrine has gone in the same direction as the road.

4.41pm

I have travelled another 200m when I notice the kites are again close. As I am photographing, the peregrine re-appears and stoops on the kite who takes defensive action.

Closely cropped view of the kite reaction.

My interpretation of this episode is that the Peregine was aggressively reinforcing "his patch". It was fast and impressive flight.

An Eremaea poster describes Kow Swamp as a:

Large freshwater storage lake between Echuca and Kerang with drowned trees and swampy margins.

You can see a list of recorded species at Eremaea's Kow Swamp page.

Typical Kow Swamp view
Australasian darter (Anhinga novaehollandiae)

Tell me about the Peregrine, Uncle Pete!

You haven't heard Uncle Pete tell his peregrine falcon story?

Well......it was like this......!

We had all gone to the Gold Coast with the original intention of running in the 2008 Gold Coast Marathon. Injury had interfered with my training and I had pulled out of the race weeks earlier but we still went for the holiday.

On the day of the big race we were watching some of the leading runners from our 24th floor apartment.

7:02:58 AM, 6th July 2008

“KEER-KEER-KEER!”

What was that? It sounded really close! Sure enough perched on a ledge was this impressive bird. My first thought was that it was distressed and there were legs and feathers sticking out where there shouldn’t be. Was it hurt?

7:03:03 AM

“KEER-KEER-KEER!”

Looking straight at me now I realised that the call was full of ferocity and venom. This bird was perfectly healthy and in fact had just killed (or was still killing?) its prey.

“Wow! What did you do?”

Well....it was like this...I changed lenses of course.

7:03:39 AM

Anyway then a pied butcherbird arrived on the scene behaving in a distressed manner and shortly the peregrine falcon took off with it’s kill heading inland from the coast. The butcherbird flew after in an uncertain, half hearted sort of way.

7:04:13 AM

More about the pictures:

• In the second one you can see one of the Marathon runners competing!
• I have only just noticed the peregrine's blood-smeared bill in the zoomed in picture!
• The bereaved butcherbird cuts a forlorn figure on the ledge above. It cannot change a thing!

Someone in San Jose California has uploaded photos to Flickr of a much love metropolitan peregrine family. They have photos of Mum doing a mid air transfer of dinner to one of the kids:

See the midair transfer by clicking here.