[Birding-Aus] Land of Parrots - raptors

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Mick Roderick

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May 4, 2008, 9:31:59 PM5/4/08
to Wendy, Birding-aus
Did anybody get an ID on the raptor that grabbed the Budgie!?

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Gregory Little

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May 4, 2008, 9:39:04 PM5/4/08
to Mick Roderick, Wendy, Birding-aus
Mick

I thought it was a Little Falcon ???

Greg Little

Greg Little - Principal Consultant
General Flora and Fauna
PO Box 526
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-----Original Message-----
From: birding-a...@vicnet.net.au
[mailto:birding-a...@vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Mick Roderick
Sent: Monday, 5 May 2008 11:32 AM
To: Wendy; Birding-aus
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Land of Parrots - raptors

Did anybody get an ID on the raptor that grabbed the Budgie!?

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Tony Russell

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May 4, 2008, 9:39:13 PM5/4/08
to Mick Roderick, Wendy, Birding-aus
Well, they showed Black Kites with Whistling Kite calls. Then I thought
the raptor that caught a budgie was either a Hobby or a Peregrine.

-----Original Message-----
From: birding-a...@vicnet.net.au
[mailto:birding-a...@vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Mick Roderick
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 11:02 AM
To: Wendy; Birding-aus
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Land of Parrots - raptors

Did anybody get an ID on the raptor that grabbed the Budgie!?

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Carl Clifford

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May 4, 2008, 9:46:17 PM5/4/08
to Mick Roderick, Birding-aus
Mick Roderick wrote:
> Did anybody get an ID on the raptor that grabbed the Budgie!?
>
>
>
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I thought it was a Nankeen Kestrel. Perhaps you will have to buy the DVD
to find out.

Cheers,

Carl Clifford
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Tim Dolby

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May 4, 2008, 9:51:27 PM5/4/08
to Mick Roderick, Wendy, Birding-aus
Yes, initially they showed a Brown Falcon sitting on a branch. Then
(from memory) a few other hawks (Black Kite) in between. Then the
footage of the hawk taking the budgie, which was definitely a Little
Falcon / Australian Hobby.

Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: birding-a...@vicnet.net.au
[mailto:birding-a...@vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Mick Roderick
Sent: Monday, 5 May 2008 11:32 AM
To: Wendy; Birding-aus
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Land of Parrots - raptors

Did anybody get an ID on the raptor that grabbed the Budgie!?

peter crow

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May 4, 2008, 9:51:26 PM5/4/08
to Tony Russell, Birding-aus
A few years back when camped on the river at Innaminka we constantly
saw both Black Kites and Whistling ones. However we only heard one
call. after much discussion and observing we noted that when a Black
Kite was calling it sounded extremely close to that of the Whistling
Kite.

Last night while viewing the "Parrotw my wife said look at ll the
Whistling Kites.

We then discussed the calls from Innaminka, the fact that black Kites
frequent fires far more than Whistlers. The birds on the TV
definitely had forked tails they must be Black Kites. the calls were
Ok for Black kites as far as my les than accurate hearing is concerned.

Peter


On 05/05/2008, at 11:39 AM, Tony Russell wrote:

> Well, they showed Black Kites with Whistling Kite calls.
>
>

Mick Roderick

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May 5, 2008, 12:10:03 AM5/5/08
to Tim Dolby, Wendy, Birding-aus
Hi,
Yeah, I admit that there was a bit of rhetoric in my question as I thought it was a Hobby.
But like Tim said, there were several other raptors shown before the prey-catch (incl. Spotted Harrier).
 
The reason I put the question out there is cos not long before the Hobby got the bird I'm sure there was footage of a Black Falcon in flight. Did anybody else see that?
 
We're a funny lot...'twitching' raptors on a Parrot doco. It was a great exercise in raptor ID though and we've already had 4 differing ID's in under an hour...
 
Re: the Kite calls, Black Kites can sound almost identical to a Whistling Kite...just lacking the fast, descending whistle that Whistlers have. But I did think the call was from a Whistling Kite and it's not out of the question that the camera was on a Black and there were Whistlers around and that's what we heard.
 
Mick

----- Original Message ----
From: Tim Dolby <Tim....@vu.edu.au>
To: Mick Roderick <mic...@yahoo.com.au>; Wendy <woob...@pipeline.com.au>; Birding-aus <birdi...@vicnet.net.au>
Sent: Monday, 5 May, 2008 11:51:27 AM
Subject: RE: [Birding-Aus] Land of Parrots - raptors

Yes, initially they showed a Brown Falcon sitting on a branch. Then
(from memory) a few other hawks (Black Kite) in between. Then the
footage of the hawk taking the budgie, which was definitely a Little
Falcon / Australian Hobby.

Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: birding-a...@vicnet.net.au
[mailto:birding-a...@vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Mick Roderick
Sent: Monday, 5 May 2008 11:32 AM
To: Wendy; Birding-aus
Subject: [Birding-Aus] Land of Parrots - raptors

Did anybody get an ID on the raptor that grabbed the Budgie!?

Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail

Denise Goodfellow

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May 5, 2008, 1:12:27 AM5/5/08
to Mick Roderick, Tim Dolby, Wendy, Birding Aus
Mick, I saw the Black Falcon and the harrier.


Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow
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Ph. 61 08 89 328306
Birdwatching and Indigenous tourism consultant

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Lawrie Conole

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May 5, 2008, 1:25:15 AM5/5/08
to Birding Aus
As far as my 3 year old daughter is concerned the highlight of the whole
show was when the Perentie snapped the baby Budgie - she was still talking
(wide-eyed) about it this morning! "How many more budgies is the lizard
going to eat?" - "Not the Mummy one!!! 'cause she can fly." and so on.
Fairly brave putting that kind of footage in a family orientated nature doco
- I flinched momentarily, but appreciated the non-gratuitous violence as
being representative of real-world conditions.

The raptor footage in the doco was something of a jumble of images and
sounds - but the soundtrack and the picture were out of kilter quite a bit
(Diamond Firetails shown - Zebra Finches calling; Budgies shown - Cockatiels
calling, etc.) - confusing only if you recognise the calls! Another vote
for the Hobby snatching a budgie out of the air. I saw Whistling and Black
Kites, Black Falcon, Brown Falcon, Nankeen Kestrel and Aus Hobby at various
points in distant and close-up shots.

L.

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Evan Beaver

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May 5, 2008, 1:40:28 AM5/5/08
to Mick Roderick, Birding-aus, Tim Dolby
Interesting that you raised it Mick, as I spent a lot of the doco
trying to ID the raptors. I too thought it was a Hobby. And I was
momentarily upset I had it wrong when someone else suggested Little
Falcon... but I've since reconciled that one.

EB

On 5/5/08, Mick Roderick <mic...@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> Hi,

> Yeah, I admit that there was a bit of rhetoric in my question as I thought it was a Hobby....
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bir...@ozemail.com.au

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May 5, 2008, 2:26:36 AM5/5/08
to birdi...@vicnet.net.au
On Mon, May 05, 2008 at 03:25:15PM +1000, Lawrie Conole wrote:
> The raptor footage in the doco was something of a jumble of images and
> sounds - but the soundtrack and the picture were out of kilter quite a bit
> (Diamond Firetails shown - Zebra Finches calling; Budgies shown - Cockatiels
> calling, etc.) - confusing only if you recognise the calls!

I found the few mismatched calls quite distracting, too; a flock
of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos shown - corellas calling was another
example.

I also noticed that some of the footage of Sue Shepard on her
motorbike had been flipped so that she was riding in the same
direction as she arrived in the following shot. Unfortunately,
the bike's fuel tank with large (reversed) brand name in centre
of view was a give away.

Overall, I thought it was a good documentary with some excellent
photography, but could have done with another 30-60 minutes.

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Peter Ewin

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May 5, 2008, 4:16:04 AM5/5/08
to Mick Roderick, Tim Dolby, Wendy, Birding-aus

I also noticed the changing raptors in this sequence - I at least saw Brown Falcon, Spotted Harrier, Black Kite, possible Black Falcon, and even one looked possibly like a Grey Falcon - there may have been a Peregrine as well (as I thought this is what took the bird in the end), though I am happy with Hobby call (incidentally saw my first Hobby for a while hooning across the road).
Mildura lost the entire broadcast at the Crimson Rosella (on both digital and analog). It also hadn't restarted at about 8:45 so anyone wanting to see the last episode of East of Eden (or whatever it was called) also would have been annoyed.
Cheers,
Peter> Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 21:10:03 -0700> From: mic...@yahoo.com.au> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Land of Parrots - raptors> To: Tim....@vu.edu.au; woob...@pipeline.com.au; birdi...@vicnet.net.au> > Hi,> Yeah, I admit that there was a bit of rhetoric in my question as I thought it was a Hobby.> But like Tim said, there were several other raptors shown before the prey-catch (incl. Spotted Harrier).> > The reason I put the question out there is cos not long before the Hobby got the bird I'm sure there was footage of a Black Falcon in flight. Did anybody else see that?> > We're a funny lot...'twitching' raptors on a Parrot doco. It was a great exercise in raptor ID though and we've already had 4 differing ID's in under an hour...> > Re: the Kite calls, Black Kites can sound almost identical to a Whistling Kite...just lacking the fast, descending whistle that Whistlers have. But I did think the call was from a Whistling Kite and it's not out of the question that the camera was on a Black and there were Whistlers around and that's what we heard.> > Mick> > > > ----- Original Message ----> From: Tim Dolby <Tim....@vu.edu.au>> To: Mick Roderick <mic...@yahoo.com.au>; Wendy <woob...@pipeline.com.au>; Birding-aus <birdi...@vicnet.net.au>> Sent: Monday, 5 May, 2008 11:51:27 AM> Subject: RE: [Birding-Aus] Land of Parrots - raptors> > Yes, initially they showed a Brown Falcon sitting on a branch. Then> (from memory) a few other hawks (Black Kite) in between. Then the> footage of the hawk taking the budgie, which was definitely a Little> Falcon / Australian Hobby.> > Tim> > -----Original Message-----> From: birding-a...@vicnet.net.au> [mailto:birding-a...@vicnet.net.au] On Behalf Of Mick Roderick> Sent: Monday, 5 May 2008 11:32 AM> To: Wendy; Birding-aus> Subject: [Birding-Aus] Land of Parrots - raptors> > Did anybody get an ID on the raptor that grabbed the Budgie!?> > > Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.> www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail> > > ==========www.birding-aus.org> birding-aus.blogspot.com> > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, > send the message:> unsubscribe > (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)> to: birding-a...@vicnet.net.au> ==========
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Philip Veerman

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May 12, 2008, 9:33:46 AM5/12/08
to Birding-aus
I too liked that doco and all the raptor bits as well. But no need for me to at this late stage add to what others have mentioned. The one thing that I didn't like though was the statement made that the Eclectus Parrot "breaks all the rules of evolution". That is a nonsense. There are an infinite number of "rules of evolution" that relate to every feature of every organism: genetics, physiology, biogeography, structure, behaviour, all the rest. The Eclectus Parrot adheres to them as much as everything else. The point they were making is that the bird appears to contradict only one "rule", which is only a general trend, as there are many other species that outwardly show the same aspect, albeit for different reasons. That relates to the reversed sexual dimorphism (brighter coloured females). Having made that wrong remark, they then proceeded to outline why it is not true, the particular nesting behaviour of the bird allows that difference. The bird is indeed not breaking that "rule of evolution". It is just that it has adopted a particular and unusual strategy that allows it to adhere to the rule in a different way from most birds. It is damaging to suggest in such loose manner that any organism "breaks any of the rules of evolution" because the comment can easily be taken out of context. It is simply that we should not take the unusual adaptation as somehow being inconsistent with the well documented trend without properly seeing the evidence.

Philip

L&L Knight

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May 13, 2008, 2:52:01 AM5/13/08
to Birding-aus
As far as I can see, the rule of thumb for evolution is that organisms
that are better suited to the environment they exist within are more
likely to survive to sexual maturity and hence tend to produce more
offspring. The rub is that in the case of species with sexual
dimorphism, the gender making the decision doesn't always make its
decision on the basis of characteristics that enhance an individual's
survivability [eg excessively long tails, predator-attracting colours
etc].

The thing that is unusual about Eclectus Parrots is that the brooding
gender is the brightly coloured one. I think there are a couple of
dimorphic species where the male does the breeding and is less
conspicuous - eg Plains Wanderer?

Ultimately you could say that Eclectus Parrots are unconventional - a
bit like people who misplace apostrophe's.

Regards, Laurie.

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Mick Roderick

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May 13, 2008, 3:16:36 AM5/13/08
to L&L Knight, Birding-aus
The male Shining Flycatcher could be construed as being "duller" than the female. Though they share the breeding duties with the female. I think it is another interesting example of 'irregular' dimorphism.
Mick

Regards, Laurie.

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David Adams

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May 13, 2008, 4:41:10 AM5/13/08
to Birding-Aus
On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 7:52 AM, L&L Knight <l.kn...@optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> As far as I can see, the rule of thumb for evolution is that organisms that
> are better suited to the environment they exist within are more likely to
> survive to sexual maturity and hence tend to produce more offspring. The
> rub is that in the case of species with sexual dimorphism, the gender making
> the decision doesn't always make its decision on the basis of
> characteristics that enhance an individual's survivability [eg excessively
> long tails, predator-attracting colours etc].

For what it's worth, Darwin described sexual selection [selection by
mate] as a different mechanism from natural selection [seletion by
arbitrary local conditions]. This lets you explain the difference
between the Peacock and the Peafowl (for example) without having to
resort to some kind of elaborate story that would conjure up a
selective constraint favoring both forms simultaneously. Put another
way, sexual selection may produce forms that are not otherwise better
adapted to their environment. At the same time, sexual favoritism
can't lead to males or females that are killed off too easily. "Land
of Parrots" had some interesting material on parrots that have color
patches that are visible to members of their species without being
within the color range of their predators. A lot of birds with sexual
color patches seem to have them in places where they can be
hidden/revealed very selectively. For example, male hummingbirds often
have fantastical gorgets that look black in anything other than good
light from exactly the right angle (only a few degrees, I'd guess.)
Closer to home, some of the bowerbirds have pink marks on the backs of
their heads that are very clear in the field guides and pretty nearly
invisible (to me anyway) in the field under most conditions.

Anyway, that's my layman's understanding of it.

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