Lost opp with Buzzard

Too preoccupied with helping the juvy Crested Goshawk, I lost the opportunity to get better shots of the Oriental Honey-buzzard and another.  Ahhh, that’s life!!  

Nevertheless, it proves once again that the taman is at such an essential location, being the raptor migratory season, it has once again provided a transit stop for migratory birds.

Early in the season, one could already see these migratory raptors glide and fly past the taman, in small groups, to their usual refuge in Indonesia and Australia (see post of 22 Jan 2018).  These birds include the Oriental Honey Buzzards, Black Baza, Chinese Goshawk and Peregrine Falcon.

Raptor migration

The raptor migratory season seems to have started.  These raptors were seen to fly, glide and hover over the taman, enjoying the thermal, which is defined as follows:

“A thermal is a mass of rising hot air produced by the intense heating of the forest. This usually comes about on the south side of a mountain slope due to its position in relation to the autumn sun. The thermal would take the raptors thousands of feet in the sky. No flapping or the wings, just get lifted and glides. Knowing the conditions of the thermal, the Raptors would then switch to gliding in circles. This way the bird capitalized on techs strongest effects in the thermal which lifts them to higher altitudes. Up to a point, the bird would then venture straight into a southerly direction and disappear into the horizon.”

Unfortunately the birds were too high for proper identification.  They came, they glided, and off they flew well away.