There is a hungry hawk and two very lucky, traumatised, honeyeaters in my garden tonight.
All seemed quite peaceful as a pair of New Holland Honeyeaters went from blossom to blossom in my garden. They were feeding on Golden Robinia blossoms, not the banksias in these shots.
Neither they, nor I, realised a hungry hawk was watching them from the branches of a nearby eucalyptus tree.
I fairly often find a small carpet of feathers in my garden and wonder what has been taken, and which predator was responsible. Sometimes it’s tufts of fur but a surprising amount of that comes from rabbits fighting each other.
Everything seemed quiet and restful today until the peace was disturbed by a raptor flying full pelt at the honeyeaters. I’ve seen them strike before. It’s usually so quick that the prey wouldn’t have known what hit them but today the raptor missed with its first strike. Perhaps the honeyeater moved at just the right moment, or maybe the raptor is a youngster and still honing its skill. Whatever the reason the next few minutes were crazy. The raptor continued trying to capture a bird but was hampered by the branches. Neither of the honeyeaters flew to the bushland, perhaps they were too shocked or maybe they felt less vulnerable staying in the tree rather than crossing an open space to reach deeper cover. Finally the raptor flew away. I’m not absolutely sure whether it was a Brown Goshawk or a Collared Sparrowhawk – for a little more about that dilemma you could look at an earlier post: Goshawk Portrait
The New Holland Honeyeaters called loudly for several minutes after the attempted attack. It wasn’t their usual alarm call, more of an alarmed call. They’re doing it again right now, perhaps they’re sharing the information with each other again or maybe the hawk is still hungrily lurking.
Happy birding, Kim
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