Absolutely a hobby for young and old. See so many teenagers out on our trips and they are well schooled and keen, and often sporting expensive hi tech photographic gear. They also have the advantage of sharp eyes and ears, something I obviously lack(BH has the ears but her eyes aren’t much better than mine.)
Maybe there is hope for the future.
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Pelicans, on the other hand …
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Amazing shot!!
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My family gave their bird nerd father (me) one of these things.
It is a little gadget with microphones.
Just left it running in the garden and it came up with hundreds of notifications comprising 21 species for the first day. It was not on all day. It runs on AA batteries but it also has a usb-c port so can run from a phone power bank
Here are some screenshots from the app.
Of the 21 I would query maybe 2 or 3.
You cant play back the recordings so difficult.
Said it heard a noisy friarbird, olive backed oriole and a lyrebird. None of which I can say I’ve heard at my house. I do live in the dandenongs so all 3 are technically in the area.
The app is a bit clunky in some ways and there is a lag from hearing the calls and loading the notifications to your phone. I did accidentally find a “Listen” function which seems to run on the app independently of the device. It identifies calls in real time. I found it by hitting the battery icon (go figure !)
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Looks great. And terrifying.
“It’s always listening” 
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Pretty sure that’s actually a blowfly! But close enough!
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#Pink Cockatoo (PKA Major Mitchell Cockatoo) - Ouyen Golf Course.
This lifer has been top of BH’s birder bucket list forever. Cresting our Xmas tree isn’t an angel or a star but a Pink Cockatoo doll BH bought because “it’s the only way I’ll ever get to see one.” Last day of our trip on Thursday and in Ouyen again(and believe me there’s only one reason we stay there), checking out the longshot haunts for the umpteenth time when she spots a large bird moving about in a distant pine on the dormant golf course. Turns out there are 7 of them in the tree feasting on the pine nuts. Needless to say all BH’s Xmases arrive at once.
Note the feather BH found on the ground proudly displayed in her hat, the PC is clearly visible in the tree top right, they basically ignored us.
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saw a group of 6 flying over Barron Falls on the Kuranda gondola earlier this year… great bird
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Greyish hawky/falcon type thing with a black/blakish head. What would it be?
Spotted hovering over a very exotic, wild, sparsely populated location (the little triangular bit with grassy tussocks as you turn north from the Monash to Eastlink).
Didn’t look like a peregrine but… maybe? What are the juveniles like? (About that size)
Maybe a BlackShouldered Kite - quite a few around and hunt by hovering.
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BH says initial response was a Black Shouldered Kite, but the black is around the eye not the head. If the head is black and it’s not a peregrine, she suggests it may be a hobby but stresses it’s not her strong suit.
All the kites I’ve seen usually glide in the wind like eagles, they don’t hover in the same spot.
The only birds I’ve seen that hover are falcons, so if it’s not a peregrine, then maybe it’s a Nankeen or Brown falcon.
Hobbies don’t normally hover either.
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Black shouldered kites always hover in my experience.
Them and Nankeen Kestrels (also hoverers) were all over the market gardens in the suburbs where I grew up. (Now just suburbs…)
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Well in the northern half of Australia where I live, we mainly get the whistling kite and the black kite, and they are prolific, and they don’t hover.
The original post did say grey body with black head, which would preclude the black shouldered kite, as they are predominantly white.
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Great pics, keep it up