Enraptored

I have been moaning to anyone who will listen [small n] on my inability over the last few years to spot the Brown Falcon leading me to think they had become locally extinct! I used to see them all the time on fence posts and in trees. [Maybe I need to get out more. Maybe I need new specs]

Well, as per my Whipbird saga experience [click here], it never rains but it pours. Got onto four in the last week. Here are images of two. The first decided to check me out when I had stopped on the roadside just near the Holland's Landing turnoff to check the stock trailer I was towing. Flew into a tree about 10 metres away.

The second flew across in front of me into a tree when I was looking at the water birds on the Greening Australia site near Marlay Point.

I went to have a look around Dowd's Morass yesterday afternoon/evening after the big wind had come through. In a paddock next to the road going in I spotted a juvenile Wedge-tailed Eagle and parents. It had a rabbit on the ground. Unfortunately I scared the youngster off its prey by stopping. However, there are plenty of rabbits around at the moment. I am sure it won't go hungry for long.

Once into the morass, I flushed a Brown Goshawk from the side of the track. It obligingly lodged in a nearby tree, in the light from the setting sun, enabling a great set of photos. Notice the "shorter" middle toe compared to a Collared Sparrowhawk. Slater, Morcombe, Pizzey & Knight

Magic. f8 and be there.