I think its amazing how well we humans come to understand the alarm calls of our local birds. Recently I was out for a run in my local park in port Melbourne when I heard the ‘Raptor above’ alarm go up. Without thinking I looked up, searched the dark, stormy skies, only to see a fairly big Silver Gull. The alarms intensified and reached proportions that I’ve rarely heard. Every small bird was involved. I was confused – this was not a reaction to a gull. So I kept looking in the sky thinking maybe something much bigger was up very high. The gull kept circling over, and the alarms perfectly followed it. I got my small, fairly useless, running binoculars up. The ‘gull’ wasn’t – it was darker, with longer wings, big heavy shoulders and a slightly wedge-shaped tail. It was a bit bigger than a Silver Gull. Eventually it stopped circling around and disappeared. I think it was a Jaeger. The wind that day was a howling Southerly, and I was only 500m from the beach, but even so I didn’t know Jaegers hunted inland. This bird certainly was looking out for something and the small birds were highly aware of that. I wished I’d seen more or had a camera! Janine JANINE DUFFY Director Marketing & Research ECHIDNA WALKABOUT PO Box 370 Port Melbourne 3207 AUSTRALIA Email: janine@echidnawalkabout.com.au Web: www.echidnawalkabout.com.au Tel: +61 (0)3 9646 8249 Fax: +61 (0)3 9681 9177 ABN: 72 716 985 505 Sent via Blackberry
Hi Janine, Had a similar experience here at Gorokan, NSW Central Coast some years ago. I was sitting in the back yard, with only the usual chatter from the local birds, when there was a raptor alert from the Noisy Miners followed by several other species. at the peak of the ruckus, a Pomarine Jaeger sailed over low. Small rodents are their main prey on their nesting grounds, so perhaps some occasionally get sick of fish and look for a rodent takeaway. Carl Clifford On 17/12/2013, at 11:25 AM, Janine Duffy wrote: I think its amazing how well we humans come to understand the alarm calls of our local birds. Recently I was out for a run in my local park in port Melbourne when I heard the ‘Raptor above’ alarm go up. Without thinking I looked up, searched the dark, stormy skies, only to see a fairly big Silver Gull. The alarms intensified and reached proportions that I’ve rarely heard. Every small bird was involved. I was confused – this was not a reaction to a gull. So I kept looking in the sky thinking maybe something much bigger was up very high. The gull kept circling over, and the alarms perfectly followed it. I got my small, fairly useless, running binoculars up. The ‘gull’ wasn’t – it was darker, with longer wings, big heavy shoulders and a slightly wedge-shaped tail. It was a bit bigger than a Silver Gull. Eventually it stopped circling around and disappeared. I think it was a Jaeger. The wind that day was a howling Southerly, and I was only 500m from the beach, but even so I didn’t know Jaegers hunted inland. This bird certainly was looking out for something and the small birds were highly aware of that. I wished I’d seen more or had a camera! Janine JANINE DUFFY Director Marketing & Research ECHIDNA WALKABOUT PO Box 370 Port Melbourne 3207 AUSTRALIA Email: janine@echidnawalkabout.com.au Web: http://www.echidnawalkabout.com.au Tel: +61 (0)3 9646 8249 Fax: +61 (0)3 9681 9177 ABN: 72 716 985 505 Sent via Blackberry