My wife and I are currently on the Barkly Tablelands, nearing the end of a two year photographic birdathon. Following a tip I travelled north of the Barkly Roadhouse in search of the elusive Grey Falcon, one of which we saw at Alice Springs but no photo. Arriving at the site I counted over 200 Black Kites, together with Swamp Harrier, Whistling Kites, Australian Hobby, Black-shouldered Kite, Kestrel and Brown Falcon. In the region we also located Brown Goshawk and Black-breasted Buzzard. The Black Kites were simply thermalling and were not observed to attack prey such as mice.
On the journey to the site I found and recovered a very freshly dead Barn Owl beside the road. It was still warm and no rigor mortis had set in. It had a significant chest wound and I suspected a raptor attack. I retained the body (in the Waeco to my wife’s dismay!) for further examination.
This morning, returning to the site we located a further 3 dead Barn Owls in the space of 5 kilometres. All appeared to be roadkill without any visible trauma. The deceased birds have been measured, weighed and photographed and the details forwarded to Birdlife Aus. If any reader has an interest they may contact us off-page. We will be revisiting the area tonight in an attempt to locate live birds and to observe, perhaps, the reason for their presence.
Paul and Jean Newman
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