Square-tailed Kite at Kobble Creek

Recently Marie posted a message reporting a Square-tailed Kite acting suspiciously close to our home near Brisbane. This morning I was just about to commence a bird-walk when I heard the Noisy Miners ‘alarming’ and spotted a SQT Kite ‘quartering’ around our trees. Eventually it flew across Watson Rd to an area where Marie had seen it nest-building, and I watched and photographed it as it continued to collect twigs and foliage and add to the nest. It called persistently when returning to the structure and a couple of times whilst circling overhead but despite this couldn’t see another bird, though at one point I thought it’s mate had arrived but it turned out to be a ‘pirate’ Whistling Kite, which managed to steal it’s prized twig! I’ve posted quite a few images from my observations on a Picasa album at http://picasaweb.google.com.au/aviceda/KobbleCreekSquareTailedKite# and will put more on as the saga progresses. I alerted the land-owner and he seemed very pleased to have such an unusual species on his land but if anyone would like to visit I would be grateful if they could contact me offline for details.

Tom