Some Bird events.

[Chris Parks]

My son flies scale gliders at Otford using the onshore wind shear and it is quite common for sea eagles to try and attack aircraft and they can be very persistent when they want to be. We also have a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo problem on nights that the garbage is collected. I haven't actually seen them do it but somehow they gang up on a bin and lift the lid enough that it swings open then they attack the contents. Some time ago we couldn't figure out why the fish population was dropping in our ponds until Mrs P saw a Kookaburra treating the pond like his own fishing hole and pinching fish. We put a cover over them and now the Kookas line up on the fence trying to figure out how to get fish out of the covered pond.

[Sawdust Maker]

Living and going to school in Canberra in the early 70's there was a pesky magpie which used to swoop us on the way to the bus.
This day I was wandering up to the bus stop and heard that distinctive magpie snap of wings noise, I've ducked and at the same time lifted my bag above my head. It was one of those Globite suitcase affairs. The magpie hit the case and then the deck, stunned. I looked at it and thought "I've killed it!" "It's probably just stunned" I couldn't do anything about it then so I wandered off and caught the bus.
When I got home the bird had gone but I did notice over the next few days that I never got swooped again, which had other benefits...

[AlexS]

Working in Bougainville we did a lot of helicopter work. Once, we were approaching a radio repeater to replace the batteries when the pilot saw a wedgetail coming in from the side. He banked away and caught the wedgie in the downwash from the rotor. The poor old wedgetail didn't know what had happened to him - feathers went every which way!

[Robson Valley]

We have several different species of hummingbirds here in the summers.
1 sugar+3 water in the feeders attracts them between bug hunting blitzes
(just think of small bats on the day-shift.)

Rufous hummingbirds are bright copper with red iridescent feathered throats.
Extremely aggressive and beligerent and territorial. Not at all unusual to have 3 or 4
displaying thier flared/barred tail feathers like a fan, screaming and pushing eachother around the feeder,
all done at what must be 60-80kph or faster.
The others are the smallest = Calliope, really big = Black chinned and medium Anna's.

At night, they roost and turn down their metabolism so low you can pick them off tree branches with your fingers.
Gone now. First to arrive 3rd Saturday in April, males leave early July. Females and young of the year
just gone this week.