Eagle Eyed Visitors.

[lynx42]

We had three visitors yesterday during lunch.

The old dead gumtree was hit by lightening a couple of years ago and died as a result. It is now the stopping place for hundreds of birds each day and yesterday there were a large number of Starlings having a rest.

Suddenly three Wedge Tailed Eagles took roost and the Starlings froze. The eagles surveyed their resting place and sat for about 15 minutes during which the other birds didn't move a muscle.

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The Wedge Tailed Eagle is Australia's largest raptor with wingspan of over 2.1 metres. It is not often seen in towns but as we live a few km. out of town we see them occasionally.

Regards Rick.

[hrpearce]

Take a shovel and bag over and collect the fertilizer for your garden

[aj.lec]

They are a magnificent bird

[Tony Wheeler]

Great photos Rick, esp. with the starlings for scale. They look like fleas next to the wedgies! Reminds me of this NT photo I took many years ago. We were driving along the Stuart Hwy which was still dirt in those days, when we saw in the distance what we thought was a man standing in the middle of the road. As we got closer he appeared to be standing on something, which turned out to be a dead roo. However it wasn't until we got quite close that we realized it wasn't a man, when he started to take flight down the road. I caught up with him and followed close behind for several hundred metres as he lumbered along trying to get airborne, with a full belly and a VC Valiant driving up his arse! We couldn't believe the size of him, he completely dwarfed the bonnet. Wingspan must have been a good 3 metres, we never knew they grew that big. Eventually he got up enough air speed to bank away from the road, and we watched him lumber away and slowly gain enough height to land in a tree. I screwed in my old 200mm telephoto and took this photo from the car, then hopped out and tried to approach him for a closer shot. Unfortunately he took off again before I could get much closer, so the only record I have is this giant chook in a tree!

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[maple_leaf_eh]

I worked at a provincial park years ago as a park ranger. One of my jobs was to patrol the roads and campsites to make sure people weren't partying too heartily and keeping other campers awake. One of the loops was the furthest away from the gates, so we tended to assign it last. So it was the least peopled of the 5 or 6 loops. One night I had just turned the corner to creep around the gravel in first gear at low rpms, when a huge white flash appeared in the windshield. In a second I realized it was a Great Horned Owl flying at about 6' range.

[Bob Carriere]

Bart the backyard barred owl..... photo by my wife...

She calls him by name and he comes for his regular feeding...... landing next to her feet. He is diving from a tree branch ....... for lunch!!!!

Cheers