I had an interesting day in my local area taking photos of birds. I spent about two hours at Tempe Wetlands (and Tempe Reserve) in the morning. I was looking out for honeyeaters, but things were a bit quiet. Perhaps not enough trees are flowering? Lots of them are in bud, so things should improve soon.
I did spot a few New Holland Honeyeaters and a White-naped Honeyeater.
There were also a few Grey Fantails.
And some of the other birds (and insects) –
Later in the afternoon, I cycled out to the Landing Lights Wetland at Barton Park. On two of three prior visits there I had seen a pair of Black-shouldered Kites. The visits I had seen them had both been late in the afternoon. The visit I had not seen them was a morning visit. So would they be around this afternoon?
When I arrived I started photographing some of the smaller birds – the Welcome Swallows wizzing around after insects.
But this was interrupted. A Black-shouldered Kite flew overhead and then started hovering, scanning the ground for prey, not far away. I took a few photos before it dived out of site behind some bushes.
I then resumed taking photos at the wetlands – a Black-fronted Dotterel was near a puddle.
Looking around to see if the Kite was around, I did notice it – perched high on a tall light pots in Barton Park near an old sports stadium. I cycled closer to it and waited for it to take off.
It eventually did and then hovered over the wetlands and again searched for prey.
It then returned back to the post. It didn’t seem to have caught anything.
It was then joined by another Black-shouldered Kite.
Meanwhile a Grey Butcher Bird flew past at high speed.
Both birds then flew to another lamp post.
But they weren’t able to rest. A Raven came down to try and drive them away. It was interesting to watch. Both birds eventually took off and flew to a more distant separate lamp posts to perch.
Not long after, the Raven arrived again, but this time it only interacted with one of the Kites. The other sat be itself about 50 m away. Again the Raven forced the Kite to take off. This time it flew across the stadium to another lamp.
I remained in the area for a while to see if either of the Kites would take off and fly around or resume hunting – but they seemed prey settled. The Raven did not come back. While waiting I photographed a couple of birds flying past –
One interesting observation was the relative size difference between the Raven and the Kites. You tend to think of raptors as large birds. But these Kites were much smaller than the Raven. I know Ravens do not hesitate to try and drive away much later birds like Sea Eagles.