I have to apologise for causing upset to some people by not explaining the
frogmouth photos I posted here yesterday. The implication of my email and
the photos was that I borrowed a ladder and climbed up to the birds and
stuck a camera into their faces. This was not the case and I hasten to say
that I am a basically sensitive person and would not have done anything to
upset the birds.
The birds were roosting in a low branch next to a public path. Despite
their proximity to the ground and the path, the birds were singularly
unphased by people and other animals going by. After 15 minutes admiring
them from the ground, a local resident walked by and joined me. He kindly
offered me his ladder, which I used to climb up a nearby tree, on the side
away from the birds. I used this to get a better view over most of the
leaves and branches, and as a sort of hide. In total I watched the birds
for around an hour. In that time one bird did not move once (until dark
when both birds yawned and opened their eyes). The other bird was more
alert and moved once when I bumped a branch of my tree while getting into
position, once when a yapping dog came by (when the frogmouth adopted the
dead branch look), and once when magpies and then rosellas flew into nearby
trees. This last was the only time it moved quickly, turning immediately
to check the other birds and remaining alert while the other birds
remained. The time I bumped my branch, it turned towards me and half
opened its eyes for about 30 seconds, which is when I took the photos. I
was using a long telephoto lens, so was not nearly as close as implied by
the photos -- at least 15-18 feet away which is about the distance to the
people on the path.
If at any time it seemed I was bothering the birds I would have left
immediately. Given that their reaction to me was less than to other
passing animals I am confident that I did not cause them any distress. As
supporting evidence I think that some of my other bird photos (on flickr)
show that I can indeed be patient and unobtrusive at times.
I must say it was wonderful to watch them. My Pizzey and Knight suggests
that they "roost branch-like by day". My observation was the opposite: that
they normally roost in the "round" shape, and only adopt the branch shape
when alarmed. I would be grateful for any ideas on the sex of these
birds. They both look identically grey to me with almost no brown, so I
thought they must both be males. Is this correct? Or maybe the unmoving and
probably smaller bird was a younger female?
Again I apologise for alarming people, and would not like to think that I
had put people off posting sightings like this.
Julian
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