Grey Goshawk brightens up the mornings

Been a bit grey at times this week but that's a good thing when it's a Grey Goshawk in the trees. Taken me more than six months to catch up with and capture an acceptable image of the species in the Town Common. Thanks owed to Spangled Drongos for flushing bird three mornings in a row.

Technical bit may be of interest. Top image: 600mm lens; above: 600+1.4x=840mm. Locked tight on sturdy tripod. Cropped to more or less same size bird. As usual (in my experience, especially at long distance, as here) prime lens alone outdoes same lens plus converter. The pros mostly disagree - and produce better results. You pays your money ...

It's not been all grey. Caught juvenile Brown Goshawk at start of soar into the blue. Almost certainly same bird shown in post last week. Also hounding and hunting other birds lately have been mature goshawks, at least one Collared Sparrowhawk, and a young Australian Hobby. Raptor-ish days!

Sunnier time for Grey Goshawk

Grey day dawning as night's drizzle drags on, so time to highlight Grey Goshawk (Accipiter novaehollandiae) seen on a sunnier day in Tyto recently.

For years one or two Greys turned up in April, haunted the scene, preyed on local birds for a few weeks and moved on.

Past two years species has arrived later, been seen once or twice and then gone. So, lucky to get a few images, which could be it for the year.