On this visit to Malabar Headland, I was joined by Sue and then later also by Valerie. I had invited them out again to see the Peregrine Falcon family after our trip on the 16th November had been relatively quiet, and then the last trip, where I was just by myself, on the 19th November being very good. But as things turned out – on this trip we didn’t see any Peregrine Falcons.
We looked in all their usual ledges and perches and look for them flying but they seemed to be out of the area. We were restricted in which parts of Malabar headland we could visit however as a large part is closed due to trackwork. Eg – we could not walk from Boora Point to Magic Point. But despite the lack of Falcon sightings we still had an interesting trip.
Here are some of the birds we did see.
Superb Fairy-wrens
New Holland Honeyeater
Brown Goshawk
Here are Valerie and Sue enjoying the views and looking for Peregrine Falcons.
We did see rather a lot of lizards. Here is an Eastern Water Skink –
I think all these ones are White’s Skinks. There seemed to be a whole family of them living in pile of rubble (part of a demolished WWII structure). They were in the same place as where I often see a Red-bellied Black Snake.
And some Copper-tailed Skinks –
And living in that same pile of rubble was this rather shy one. It is an Eastern Brown Snake (thanks Ken Griffiths for the id).
We spotted a nice clump of Onion Orchids, Microtis sp.
There was this rather large wasp. I think it is a type of Potter Wasp – a Large Mud-nest Wasp – Abispa ephippium.
And walking out via the old munitions railway.
Hi David, I have been looking at your blogs and found them very interesting with lots of beautiful photographs of our local birds and wildlife
Thanks for posting
I came across a partially eaten leg possibly off a tagged seagull on the top of the cliff at Boora point south of the geo marker – wonder what kind of bird powerful enough to kill a seagull.
I could forward a photo if you are interested
San Mai
Thanks for your kind comments. The leg if tagged is unlikely to be seagull (Silver Gull), and I have noticed that some of the Peregrine’s prey had coloured leg bands. I suspect they are Racing Pigeons. Perhaps the adults choose them for feeding their young as they may have less parasites? It is very common for Peregrine chicks to die before they fledge because of parasite overload.