I'm starting to think that I am getting too obsessed with BOP and am starting to hallucinate. I can't believe what I just saw. I was sitting at my desk and I looked out my window and saw a dark grey (feral pigeon colour) bird standing on the wooden garden border of the garden that runs along the back fence. It was faced away from me but I tried to work out what it was because it was taller (about 30%) than the crested pigeons and spotted turtle doves that are in the yard every day. It suddenly turned and flew and it had a dead bird in its talons. I think the dead bird was light grey or grey and white (white underside?), about the size of a noisy miner, it was held sideways and its wings were open a bit but it was not moving at all.
I still can't believe it really happened but I have never seen a BOP with any prey except dragonflies and small things I can't identify from a distance. I also can't remember seeing that scene in a documentary or seeing a still photo of something like that. I went outside and there are no feathers in the garden. It is like a dream, it happened so fast.
I don't know if it was flying overhead, dropped its prey and retrieved it, or if it caught a bird in our yard.
btw we only have a standard-sized block in a suburb, so I wouldn't expect a BOP to land in the yard. In the surrounding area though, we have extensive river flats, grasslands and paddocks in all directions. Lucky me!
How exciting, Birdgirl! Approx. 18 months ago a Peregrine Falcon was on the balcony outside my office at the uni. It later caught a feral pigeon.
You're so lucky to get BoP in your garden!
Did this happen before you had the "red wine" for lunch?? All sorts of things happen in the suburbs!! I have seen strange things in mine. A while ago, I saw a Kookaburra attack a large Blackbird, grab it with his beak, and take off with it. That wasn't a dream either. So, neither one of us is hallucinating, just lucky to see things other people don't!??
M-L
Andy I would have been ecstatic to see a peregrine falcon.
Araminta I think I needed the red wine after the sighting, to calm me down
I have to go through my books and try to work out what it was. Some of the contenders probably don't take prey that size (I estimate greater than 50% of the weight of the BOP).
Different BOP do fly over this suburb. I have had a whistling kite fly low over me in the next street and have photographed Australian hobbies on the power lines in the next street. I also photographed a nankeen kestrel flying last week, while standing in the back yard
That's fabulous Kim! :) What suburb are you again? You're up the central coast aren't you? I recently found two piles of plucked feathers (most likely Spotted Dove) in our yard in Cambridge Gardens near Penrith. I guess the local hawks are busy. In March we always get Square-tailed Kites flying low over our place and neighborhood, then we get White-bellied Sea Eagles, Brown and Grey Goshawks, Collared Sparrowhawk too, and have seen a Black-shouldered Kite, Australian Kestrel and Little Falcon (hobby) once each. It's amazing how common BOPs actually are in the appropriate habitats. Re: Peregrine, I know of two nest sites close to home in the lower mountains where they nest on cliffs. Pretty awesome birds. I've seen one take a Rock Dove near the Penrith CBD last year.
BTW I reckon your BOP was a grey phase Grey Goshawk from your description. They are not that common, but not uncommon either. :)
One time I was taking the dog for a walk and I saw some sort of goshawk (probably a Brown Goshawk). It didn't bother about the Willie Wagtails a couple of metres away. It was more interested in trying to (unsuccessfully) catch Red Rumped Parrots. It was amazing to watch.
Ninox
Ninox
Wow Windhover, what a lovely variety of BoP to have around you. The Peregrine Falcon that I saw in 2009 was apparently lost during a massive dust storm. It landed on the balcony outside my office and stayed for four hours. Qld people will probably remember that day in September. The dust was incredible.
A couple of days later I read in the local newspaper that a Peregrine Falcon had been rescued from the freeway near the uni. It was eating a Rock Dove in the middle of the road. (I think I posted about the event.)
Ninox, it would have been great to see the goshawk hunting!
Andy.
I must confess I don't see BOPs every day, but at least weekly, something does turn up. However, I can walk or drive 2km down the road and see even Wedge-tailed Eagles, Swamp Harriers et al..... :)
BTW, here is another Peregrine encounter I just remembered. reported that on the Birding-Aus mailing list a few years back. Here's the link:
http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/birding-aus/2008-11/msg00169.html
Yes I agree that it must have been a grey goshawk. I looked up the size of the crested pigeon and the grey goshawk and my estimation of the size being 30% bigger fitted. I definitely thought it was grey, because I thought it was a pigeon at first and then thought "Hang on a minute, it looks too tall". It gave me the impression of being fairly slender and having long legs. I know they are in the area because I have photographed one twice at the Hunter Wetlands Centre, about 16 km away. And they catch birds. It all fits.
Windhover I am in the Hunter, near the end of the f3 freeway. It sounds as if you have lots of terrific BOP yourself
Hello everyone, not that long I was in the park when I saw a large bird ontop of one of those large green pillons with the lights on them. I thought it was just a regular bird because it was so far away. Then a cockatoo started attaking it. The large bird then flew down at increadible speed from the post and grabbed a swallow that was flying around. The bird then flew up to the post that was closer to me. Then I saw it. A magnificent peregrine falcon!
The bird also made a kind of KEEK-KEEK-KEEK noise. I was amazed. This made me think. At this point of time, in this exact spot the fastest bird in the world was standing right here in front of my eyes. Are such magestic creatures always around and we never notice? From then on I vowed that I should always appreciate the world around me. Recently I have been seing and hearing a southern boobook that was probably there all the time but I never noticed. I also saw a tawny frogmouth and a black faced cuckoo-shrike aswell as friar birds. These birds were probably staring at me all my life and I never noticed. Maybe it was luck, maybe Im just grazy, or maybe we should all learn to appreciate mother nature.........
...I forget to say spotted nighjars!
Yes Coooeee we should all learn to appreciate mother nature for sure!
Sunshine Coast Queensland
... and might I add, we should all learn to appreciate our fellow humans,most of all the ones we haven't noticed before, because they are shy and timid. Because everyone has a story to tell, as my wise mother used to say, and everyone is beautiful, and of equal value.
M-L