Tawny Frogmouths get started

[martin butterfield <>]

I have been checking on a daily basis (not hard - it is directly in front of my study window) the site in which a pair of tawny Frogmouths have nested for the last two years.  This morning for the first time a small pile of additional twigs has appeared.  This is about two weeks earlier than i noticed last year.  However, last year the bird started brooding two days later so I may well have missed the earlier work.  

Kaplan says that when starting from scratch the process can take up to 4 weeks - although refurbishment might be just a single night.  So, in terms of laying,  they may be a tad early or right on time but it does look as though it is game on!

Martin