As you may know, the Blue Mountains has been belted with 140kmh winds for over a day now. Trees have fallen on trains, houses and fences, and the SES are very busy.
Trees are bending double, which has really worried my wife, who asked me where our visitors went in such extreme conditions.
Do they stay low in the canopy, or do they know to go to larger trees? What about the tiny birds? Do they take cover in small, dense shrubs?
All comments welcome!
Hello sherro, good to see you again. Interesting point you make. Yesterday I went to Western Sydney Regional Park were the wind was very strong. Surprisingly I saw a black shouldered kite hovering in the air and I also saw a nankeen kestrel sitting still on a small bridge. Do birds of pray take advantage of wind? Even though the wind was strong I still saw several superb fairy wrens darting through the lantanna and blackberry thickets. This is a question I have always wondered about, thanks for asking!
It is though-provoking, isn't it? I watched a small flock of cockatoos ducking and diving, trying to make headway. If it's that hard for the big birds, imagine how hard it is for the small ones. Having said that, I fed our butcher birds, magpies and currawongs yesterday, so they don't ALL run for cover!
Maybe they just flow with the wind???
Yikes sherro, watching the news now and seems like you got hit hard in the blue mountains. Wasn't nearly as bad here. Hope everything is all right.
Thanks for the thought cooee. It's a bit hairy! We live in a two-storey red cedar home, which is actually moving in the strongest gusts. We've been lucky though, apart from a six-hour power outage yesterday, we're (touch wood) untouched.
Thats good to hear."(touch wood) untouched" LOL
Some birds take shelter in strange places. We get some bronze wings, that sit storms out under our car port. Last time, when it rained for days, we had a pair of King Parrots sitting on our outside fridge to dry off. So, birds are looking for cover sometimes.
M-L
Yesterday I spotted two Crested Pigeons hanging on with all their might half way up a gum tree, likewise two Australian Ravens perched high in their tree swaying in the wind. Plus some Sacred Ibis seemingly unworried about the wind up in the fronds of their palm tree. Local pigeons make for the shopping centre as too some Indian Mynahs.
I think the birds might go in thick areas of trees not being affected as much by the wind and this might be why we don't see them in windy weather. I do think Birds of prey take advantage of wind because we drove from Melbourne from Geelong when it was very windy the other day and I saw 2 Black-shouldered Kites, a Brown falcon and a Wedge-tailed eagle and a Little eagle.
Cheers, Owen.
I love these thought-provoking questions. Thanks, sherro, & it's nice to hear you survived the tempest.
When there's a gale blowing it's almost as though the small birds, particularly, have disappeared. However, I reckon if I donned my protective clothing & scrambled among a few thick shrubs I'd find at least a few sheltering in there. Again, this shows the value of a variety of vegetation in developing any bird habitat. It's not just trees for birds. It's habitat for birds.
Birds may still be active when windy and it's a great time to photograph them in flight when a westerly gale blows and the sun is going down, well close to going down. I did just that yesterday. Although, I confess, the smaller birds were nowhere to be seen at Richmond (NSW). The wind was about 50-60kph and I photographed a Brown Falcon flying around as well, but gosh, what trouble did it have to stay afloat. Here is my kestrel shot from near there late yesterday. I had two BS Kites and one Kestrel working the same fields, flapping frantically, but to my advantage. :)
To see the kestrel larger, click the link:
http://amatteroflight.com/gallery2/d/5556-1/_KOS2727a_001.jpg
Wow windhover, how amazing these pictures look. The image of a bird of prey truly inspire me.
Stunning stuff, Windhover. I'm amazed at the wonderful photography on this forum.