First Powerful Owlet of the season!!! Peeking out of its nest hollow about 20 minutes after sunset this evening. It'll probably be 2-3 weeks before it fledges and comes out of the hollow forever, but it's already interested in what's going on outside. #birds#brisbane
Female Powerful Owl roosting in the day with her partner for the 1st time this breeding season. First in the nest hollow, then roosting out of the hollow, but still in the same tree, now in a nearby tree with views of the hollow. She must be confident the Owlet(s) are doing well. #birds#brisbane
Female* Powerful Owl displaying her bat. Looks like this pair are skipping this breeding season, meaning they have now skipped 3. But the season before that they had 2 beautiful chicks. #birds
* Usually we're not confident visually sexing POwls, but her partner is very a chunky boy.
Audio recordings from a few days ago of a Powerful Owl calling near its nest hollow & Owlet trilling from inside. The female adult can be also just be heard bleating in the trilling recordings. She seems to position herself outside to call/bleat to the Owlet in the nest. #birdsyoutu.be/amtQ2SCHtxE
This female Powerful Owl has recently taken to roosting outside the hollow during the day. Previously she has only had one Owlet each year & has stayed in the nest during the day up until when the Owlet emerged. Maybe a sign it's getting crowded in there & there more is than one?
#birds#brisbane
Female Powerful Owl coming out of her nesting hollow just after sunset today. Now her little Owlet is getting older, she is staying out for longer, more than an hour today. The Owlet could be heard strongly trilling from the hollow. Most likely its name will be Trill-B. #birds#brisbane#wildoz
When is it best to listen for Powerful Owls? @lucyparkerpaul.bsky.social & I set a recorder up near a nest site in Brisbane for 15 days during nesting & recorded 5pm-6am each day. 472 calls were detected. While there is some calling around dawn & over the night, 5-5.30pm is definitely the best time!
We just heard a Powerful Owlet trilling from the nest hollow for the 1st time this season! Given the female of this pair went into the nest 23rd April, the chick must have hatched only 10 days ago, give or take.
๐ท Owlet emerging from the hollow for the 1st time 2 seasons ago
#birds#brisbane#wildoz
Bird Bums of Brisbane LXIII
Pacific Baza*
Koala Park Reserve
This morning
* with some kind of monstrous insect that I suspect will be fueling my nightmares for days to come.
#birds#brisbane#wildoz
Powerful Owl at dusk yesterday guarding the nearby nest hollow where the female POwl and probably recently hatched chicks are. He also has dinner for later. He's a good Papa. #birds#brisbane#wildoz
Having just reread Irene Pepperberg's wonderful Alex and Me, I'm really curious as to how Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and other Australian birds would compare to African Grey Parrots in intelligence. #wildoz#birds
A few more photos of H3 the Curlew* and family from this morning at The University of Queensland. #birds
* While his name is "H3 the Curlew", of course he is actually a Bush Stone-curlew.
I went into UQ to see how things were at my old institute, and I was lucky enough to find H3 the Curlew & Harriette in the Curlew reserve. They also appeared to have a near-adult chick! H3 was tagged in a study by the Qld Wader Study Group 3 Dec 2013, so he's been there a while! #birds
Another Bernie Wrightson detail from Stephen King's Cycle of the Wolf. My dip pen control is getting a little better, though is still far from good. Every drawing is practice for the next.
Two Noisy Minors mobbing an old-growth tree hollow that has a female Powerful Owl nesting inside, though quite how they knew she was there I don't know. The male had dinner for later and was doing sentry duty nearby. Mostly. #birds#brisbane#wildoz
A mystery Powerful Owl. I went looking for one Powerful Owl which I thought may be nesting with its partner, but found this one. I'm certain this isn't the one I was looking for as that one has a much more gruff Brian Blessed-like attitude. Odd that this one should be in that one's territory. #birds
Powerful Owlet staring intently at something. I don't quite remember what, but I think she may have had her eye on a Brush Turkey. Every drawing is practice for the next.
