Browns Brawl

I was down at the Peter Murrell Reserve this morning and after a fairly lack lustre morning as far as birding goes, wandered back towards the car park on the Western side of Coffee Creek, a route I had not taken before. As I neared the 2nd pond, there were loud, very agitated calls, that I recognised as a Brown Falcon's. I headed away from the trees hoping to get a view, and possibly photograph, the pair of falcons as they wheeled, calling, just above the trees. As I did so, I saw another 'Brown', heading towards me across open paddocks. The calls from the wheeling Browns at this stage reached fever pitch! As the interloping Brown approached it was attacked at a speed a Peregrine would have been proud of and certainly much faster than I've ever seen a Brown Falcon fly at. The two falcons locked talons as you can see in the rather poor quality photo., and fell to the ground. They landed in a heap, disentangled, and the interloper flew off. The triumphant bird returned to its' mate in the trees near the pond. The whole episode had taken a matter of seconds, and I was torn between trying to photograph it and just watching a thrilling event. I did neither well! and the images don't do the event justice, but I did feel as I wandered back, that the morning had proved to be very satisfactory. I hope the photos capture at least some of the excitement.