A soaring Brown Falcon
Brown Falcon flying over Tharwa Sandwash
Canon EOS R1 with a Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM Zoom [ISO 1800, 500mm, f/8.0 and 1/3200])
I was heading back to the car after walking around Tharwa Sandwash when a darkish brown bird shot out from the slope leading down to the Murrumbidgee River. It flew south, parallel to the river, and I wasn’t able to identify it. I was going to chalk the sighting up to the one that got away but I thought that I would just drive down the road, in the direction that the bird flew, to the actual sandwash, in case the bird had landed along the way. After driving a short distance I was rewarded with a Nankeen Kestrel circling as it hunted. A second kestrel appeared but I knew they won’t the bird that I had seen. The kestrels then started swooping down, adopting the wings-in tuck used for accelerating towards prey, yet they were pulling up, not seizing prey. They did it a few times, towards a tree, but didn’t seem to be hunting. I wondered what they were swooping in the tree and then I noticed a Brown Falcon (Falco berigora) perched motionlessly on a branch. When I approached the tree, the falcon flew off but quickly found a new tree to perch in. It seemed calmer there, allowing me to approach it. After a while it took off, but circling as it gained height and passed over me several times. On the first pass, I was able to take the above image with the sun back-lighting its extended wings.
This species of falcon have several morphs of colour, from lighter to darker. They tend to hunt singularly and are normally quiet, not calling. They also have ‘teeth’ and matching grooves that allow them to quickly bite through the spinal cord of any small vertebrates they catch.
It was a glorious looking bird in a beautiful blue sky, and seeing it, along with the Nankeen Kestrels, made the morning a wonderful experience.
