I am still sorting pics from my leave birding trips On my 1st day BajanAllan took me to Manom Dam to see the Great Bowerbird; on the way there we saw plenty of Black & Whistling Kites particularly in 1 area I like these Black Kite pics
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well done mate, Black Kites are super! I saw many at a rubbish tip near Newcastle recently and I am told the numbers may have increased. I am thinking of checking it out soon.
Great Photos Peter, I think the numbers are also up down here. I saw 5 of them in one area at the W Treatment Plant 2 weeks ago.
M-L
Are mice numbers on the increase dna, Araminta? When we had a mouse plague about 15 years ago the black kite numbers increased dramatically. Long after the plague a pair of black kites remained & nested about 4 km from us. Another pair used to patrol a local country road. However, I haven't seen any of this species in our area for about 4 or 5 years.
Well, I have to say, the day I saw large amounts of raptors in the area, there was a farmer ploughing a field , so you could be right about the mice.
Where I live , next to the Bunyip State Park, I haven’t seen large numbers of mice. Not so far. Last year I had a few in the house. And I have to say, haven’t heard many Owls all year either. Unfortunately the Scout Camp/ DSE have conducted a lot of tree felling
as fire prevention. (won't make any difference if a big fire comes through, but people demanding the slash and burn)
I worry about the Owls, many old trees were sacrificed on the altar of fire prevention
Someone has told me, they have heard the Barking Owl closer to the Gembrook Township. If so, at least she has moved. But I doubt everything people say.
M-L
Ah, Araminta. This is another classic example of people wanting to enjoy everything the bush has to offer but then destroying it. Passing strange, indeed.
Black kites are in big numbers again here in the Top End as well, when i got up here some 30 years ago there were thousands in huge spiralling kettles (is that the right spelling?) every where you looked (there was also abotoir dumps on the outskirts of Darwin then too) but they declined over a long time until it was rare to see more than a few,but after the widespread floods around Oz, there was obviously good times, and now they are in numbers nation wide by the sounds of it. I assume they will slowly decline until next good times!
Boom & bust. The story of Australia's environment.