Both Diamond and Xavier have been known to hunt at night, but Diamond is now hunting on a regular basis at night since late January (or possibly earlier – we didn’t always have night vision before). Between them they have taken 28 prey at night since late 30/1/2024, 26 of these taken by Diamond.
The cam is not usually good enough to see what she is eating, but I have identified small grebes (either australasian or hoary-headed grebes, identified by their distinctive lobed feet), plus masked lapwing. The latter was stashed until day-time and so I was able to see the lapwing’s colours by daylight. As indeed was the prey shown below taken at 4.26 am by Diamond, partially eaten, then stashed in the box and finished off in daylight.
There are distinctive white bars on each side of the body, possibly on the wing ‘shoulder’, which makes me think it could be a duckling. I’ve seen plenty of these still about in the vicinity, particularly Australian wood ducks, which are likely to be grazing near dams at night.
After she brought the prey to the box, she stashed it in the corner and retrieved later to consume (see video below).