There have been reports of Black Falcons at the treatment plant for several months, but with one exception, we haven’t been able to get a good view of them. However that all changed on Monday 26th of March.
On the way back from a day at the You Yangs, we were travelling on 29 Mile Road near the Beach Road junction and found two sitting together in the trees on the roadside. At first we took a look from further back, but then moved up to the road junction.
To our great delight, the birds flew out of the trees and began quite an aerial display. The light was good, and so I managed some passable photos.
The speed of the birds is astonishing. They seemed to be able to turn on next to nothing, and they spent a bit of time in mock combat and then sped off down the road giving every bird along the way a fly past just it seemed for the fun of it. Then they went from black spots way way down the road to race past us at speed, it must have been 100kph or so it seemed. A great afternoon’s entertainment.
Two birds preening
Single bird preening in the sunshine
Slow circling in the afternoon breeze
Low pass over our position
Wings pulled back to increase diving speed
Turn at speed
Fly by at speed
Showing wing and body patterns. The head appears to be much smaller than Brown Falcon. And it seems much heavier built across the shoulders.
Brown Falcon in similar flight to show colour, shape and size comparison
