Bird on a Wire...

...and a pole and a fence...Yesterday's jaunt saw us headed back to Breakwater to have - in my case - another look at the aqueduct. With all the recent rain it was as boggy as I have ever seen it. The cisticolas were up and about despite the rather chilly conditions, but there was little sign of most of the other birds usually around.

Golden-headed Cisticola

We squelched our way along to the end of Boundary Road and back then headed over to the aqueduct. We hadn't made it too far along the track before we were confronted by not one, but two raptors. It is not uncommon to see them circling over head or - on one occasion - perched on the aqueduct itself. These two however were on the wire fence only a short distance from us - although still a little too far for the limited zoom capacity of my camera. As we approached, they moved along the fence, keeping us at a distance, but not keen to take flight.
This of course allowed for some reasonable shots, which I duly took. Exhibit A was a Nankeen Kestrel

Nankeen Kestrel

which kept a close eye on us, but then found something of interest in the bushes growing along the fence and hopped down briefly from its post to investigate.

Nankeen Kestrel flapping about in the bushes

The second bird was a Black-shouldered Kite which seemed a little less concerned by our presence than the kestrel, but was none-the-less watchful, prefering in general to keep an eye on us from the safety of a convenient pole when we approached the fence too closely.

Black-shouldered Kite

Pole-sitting however, was not without its difficulties as the kite discovered. Its initial attempts to perch resulted in a certain amount of flapping around and resettling before it got its balance sorted.

Black-shouldered Kite attempting to balance on the top of a pole