I made another visit to the Northern Beaches mainly to see how the raptors were going that I had seen on my last visit.
I first visited the sporting field where the Osprey’s have their nest. The parents were not there, but two of the three juvenile Osprey were perched on or near the nest.
While I watched the third juvenile Osprey flew in and landed on the nest.
It then flew to a higher perch. What happened next was interesting. Another of the juveniles rose into the air and flew on top of it. It then flew back to its perch nearby.
It then started doing this again. This time it flew above the other Osprey, didn’t land, but rose higher and flew off.
It headed a few hundred metres away and looped around. By this time it had attracted the attention of a Masked Lapwing. The lapwing had several dives at the young Osprey.
The Osprey then returned to the nest.
One of the other Osprey then took off and went for a flight. It too had to run the gauntlet of other birds. It seemed to be hiding to the sea. It did not return in my remaining time at the site (40 minutes or so).
One of the two remaining Osprey did make a short flight.
And overhead were flying lots of birds that looked like large Swallows. From my photos of them, they were White-throated Needletails.
I then left the area and headed to the sea cliffs. None of the Peregrine Falcons seemed to be around. So I found a shady place and had lunch. Just when I was finishing I heard the call of a Peregrine Falcon. It flew past very fast and I was lucky to get a few photos of it. From the photos I could see that it had some prey.
I packed y such away, and walked along the clifftop path to see if I could find where the Falcon had landed. I had no luck. But later a Falcon, the same one or a different one, I don’t know, flew off from the cliffs and flew around for a bit. I was ready with my camera. Photography was hard as it was flying very fast.
I waited for a fair while, and y patience was rewarded. One of the falcons flew past again.
I then walked to the nearby Dee Why Lagoon. The water level was very high, I had to leave the track in places and walk high on the dunes. Not many birds around. In the bush behind the Long Reef Surf Club I photographed a nice Superb fairy-wren.
Nearby I could hear a pair of Whipbirds calling. I waited quietly to see if they would make themselves visible from the shrubbery. They did –
Out on Long Reef, the tideway low, so I walked out to see if any migratory birds were around. I eventually located some on the Collaroy side.
Not much else around, but it had been a very good day.
