Wedge-tailed Eagle: a messy eater

On 2 September I took the small dog for a short walk down to the creek (don't worry: despite the title to this post she came back).  As we approached the trees in that area the Australian Magpies were kicking up a fuss, making me think a raptor was perched in one of the trees.  However looking across the creek on to the direct seeded area there was a magnificent Wedge-tailed Eagle standing between a couple of acacias ripping into something on the ground. Its nape, mantle and wing-coverts were a rich chestnut while the lower plumage was close to black: this mixture makes me think it was a well advanced immature bird.

I have heard that an eagle on the ground can be a cause for concern as a side effect of a poison.  However this bird appeared very active and, without binoculars in very good condition: it was clearly eating.  One of the magpies took off and swooped the Eagle (good to see a species other than H. sapiens take a hit) which carried on eating.  I tried to get closer but it spotted me and took off, carrying its lunch.

A horde of at least 6 magpies now started to harass it, with one so close it looked almost as though it was riding on the Eagle's back.  This caused the Eagle to drop the lunch and just keep going.  I went to look at where it had been dining and found a metre-diameter circle of bunny fur and a few meaty bits and pieces.  Well done Eagle: there are probably only a few more hundred to go!

Here is an image of the circle of fluff.
I suspect the centre of the circle - the area devoid of fluff indicates the area occupied by the Eagle, making it about a metre long.  As I said, magnificent.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Insects from pine trees

Image
This afternoon (13/1/2015) we were looking out of our sunroom and noticed a strange bit of mist.  On getting my binoculars on the case I found it to be a cloud of tens of thousand of insects.  They appeared with naked eye to be flying away, but with binoculars I thought they were circling. Here are some images In the second one it may be possible to see there are two streams coming from the top of each tree. There was a loud buzzing noise but that could just be several thousand wings. Earlier in the day Frances had been to some nearby willows and they were infested with many little black soft bodied insects.  Perhaps they shifted to the pines and were swarming? Help!! Any information welcome. A colleague, from Wamboin, had noticed a similat phenomenon, but involvng eucalypts rather than pines!  Here are the photos he took with his phone. I have consulted some expert friends.   Their responses were: I would have gone for chironomids. I rec...
Read more

A tour of the West (part 1)

Image
A friend from my time in the UN sent me some photos of her family trip along Route 66.  They did this is a large camperwagon rather than a Chevy Corvette (apparently the kids jacked up about being offered a trip in the trunk).  It seems to have been a very good trip for them and most interesting to see their photos.  It was also educational for me, as I found out the German for rocking chair (schaukelstuhl, since you ask). They did 7200 miles in 30 days - a pretty serious bit of distance. This made me think of the trips we did in 1981 when living in Denver.  Frances initiated that idea by getting a book about the National Parks of the West  and marking interesting places.  I then worked out a route on a Rand-McNally Road Atlas (GPS was unknown then  - as were iPhones, personal computers and the internet).  From memory, taking nearly the whole Summer school holidays we covered about 10,000 miles in 70 days.  Here, approximately,  are ...
Read more

Maslins beach rules

Image
Anyone who was in Adelaide in the 1970s will be having a good nudge nudge at that title.  However the beach is really nice even though it is the haunt (in Summer ) of naked people.  (As an aside one of the 'van park staff was talking to some other guests and commented that the sights on the beach in Summer were not at all exciting.)  In April it is the haunt of seniors, many of them exercising their dogs, and thus a far more attractive place. Getting to the beach was a walk of about 1km along roads, from our van.  The second half of this went past a rather daggy looking paddock with many formed ridges in it, as though it was irrigated, although a water sources wasn't evident.  The paddock got interesting towards the end as some green parrots appeared.  Thanks to Frances eye for detail we have subsequently identified these as Elegant Parrots: my first lifer for 2014.    The locale is indicated by the red lines in this mudmap: Here are the bird...
Read more