Bird Watching: Whopper - heading towards independence at a leisurely pace., 1 by MargaretK

MargaretK wrote:
Thank you for your comments, everyone.

Braving the heat, I spent an hour at the nest yesterday afternoon. Whopper was on the right hand branch, periodically and half-heartedly squawking at Big Hook, who was in a tree out of my sight, down by the river. I know Big Hook was there because a couple of people passed by below me on the low path. Whopper alerted me to their presence with some head rocking and then a couple of minutes later I could hear Big Hook's "kek kek kek", which translates to "Warning! Warning! Aliens approaching".

A flock of possibly fifty Black Cockatoos flew by the nest, looked down into it and circled back (see dreadful bird pics) before continuing on their graceful way.

Then a Brown Goshawk flew in and swooped Whopper a couple of times. I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of the hawk, but this photo shows Whopper looking genuinely astonished as the hawk departed the scene.

Madam X reports that Big Hook is still occasionally bringing Whopper fish, but we have to assume that the little darling is also catching her own food by now. She also saw Dad bring Whopper a fish a week ago and it was so windy that he made three attempts to land. Apparently she was squealing in frustration and when Dad eventually landed, she was so frantic she nearly pushed him and the fish over. I haven't seen Dad for probably two months.

I'll continue to go down the nest every few days and will give updates if I see anything.