My single decent bird of prey photo!

...which I am calling a brown falcon. Yet to identify / photograph one perched or on the ground as everyone else seems to have done.

This picture taken on the Cape Woolamai trail - we also saw a peregrine gliding along the cliffs (too fast and too brief a sighting to get a photo).

Brown falcon, Falco breigora

Back on the rails?

There are no birds in the far western end of the Rhyll inlet....none...not a sausage.

Even if someone shows you a photo of buff banded rail allegedly taken at the far western end of the Rhyll Inlet do not get taken in. There are, I repeat, no birds among the spiky grass tussocks and muddy salt marsh of the western end of the Rhyll Inlet. Don't take the bush bash hike and wait among the mozzies thinking you might tick off an elusive rarity - it's just... not.... worth it.

If however you happen to be having a pizza from the wood-fired oven at the Cowes Eco Resort you may do worse than go for a wander (no further than 20m across the the mown lawn) cos you might see something like this:

Similarly you might drop in at a park near your workplace & finally catch a photo of a bird previously seen but not identified...

(excited to finally identify this bird, but having already ticked the BBR above I was hoping it was going to be something else!)

And to complete the irony check this out: Pa's 70th approaches (22/2) & that means "Pete makes a slideshow". I have been going through some of Mum & Dad's old photos. They are definitely muggles (non-birders). This photo was labelled "Trader Nicks" which is an eatery on Lord Howe Island:

 I couldn't believe it!

Pete (RTS, Tally 115)