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Hi,
I’m not a subscriber, but do go through the Birding-aus achieves from time to time, however I thought the readers may be interested in some recent sightings of Grey Falcons in western Qld.
The first bird was seen on 17/6/11 about 30 feet above our heads at the red sand Dunes 12 kms west of Windorah on the Birdsville development road. There were many raptors gliding and circling above the dunes, mostly Black Kites. Some Whistling kites, Little Eagle, Brown falcons light and dark morph, kestrel, and two Spotted Harriers hunting below on the plains, after about 20 minutes of watching, a Grey Falcon flew in as well but only stayed a minute or less.
The Next sighting was at Bladensburg Nation Park just south of Winton (Qld) on 19/6/11, our bird watching group was setting up camp when the bird was spotted perched near by, this time we could set the scope on the bird and got very good views. It was an immature bird; it stayed in place for about 15/20 minutes before flying. Two days later on the 21/6/11 we saw two Grey Falcons perched near Skull hole, another location in the same park. One flew before we could get good detail but the other remained, this bird too was immature, we don’t know if it was the same bird as previously seen, however this time there had been two birds together. Then would you believe it, another sighting from two of our group was seen on 22/6/11 on the track leading out of the park and heading towards Lark Quarry. This bird was perched low down at eye level from the vehicle. Maybe the same bird but hard to tell, it too was immature.
Most of our group of 8 birdwatchers had seen Grey Flacons before and weren’t necessarily looking for them. I feel I should apologies to all the keen birders who spend a lot of time unsuccessfully looking for this species, I guess its all about being in the right place at the right time. Cheers, Wendy Dunn
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