What owl is that?

[Gina Wyatt <>]

Hello all,

I am a complete newbie in this bird-spotting bizzo! I have just returned from walking the dogs having spotted some kind of owl (my very first ever!).  We were doing the circuit of Chauvel Circle in Chapman when we heard a bizarre hoarse trilling whistling call.  We thought it might some loud, strange cicada or bat perhaps - we could hear another calling off to the west - and very quietly continued on our way. As we walked the calling was tending to move forward away from us. Keeping our eyes peeled we finally spotted something winged moving between the trees.  By the time we reached Darwinia Tce the unidentified flying object was perched on the big gum near the Darwinia Tce underpass. I got a reasonable look at it (long enough for it to have a good look at me too, and a lovely owly blink) but as it was so dim, all I can say for certain is it was an owl, a reasonably small one, probably greyish brown in colour with possibly some banding on
 the feathers?, and continued to make this very high-pitched, trilling hoarse whistle. It then flew off to the north-west.

I've listened to the calls of the Southern Boobook and Tawny Frogmouth on the COG website and it most definitely wasn't one of those.  Can anyone tell me what my exciting sighting was of?

Cheers
Gina

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