Yep I meant 'days' both in reference to Ms Kaplan and my lot. Probably I was thinking of sleeping periods. Well picked up.
I have tracked my pair for most of the last 4 years and they shift around a fair bit within their territory. In previous years I have been unable to find them on a moderate proportion of days. That proportion has dropped significantly this year as I have found 3 additional day-roost sites. To illustrate the mobility of this pair, since we returned from holiday the roost sites have been as follows:
- Saturday: both birds in roost at extreme North east of known range.
- Sunday; Both birds in roost in centre East of range (about 100 m from Saturday)
- Monday: Both birds in roost about 70m South West of Sunday.
- Tuesday: Female in same position as Monday; male about 50m due south of Monday, 20m from where they were on Sunday.
At other times they will sit in the roosts used on Sunday and Monday for 4 - 7 days in a row. Of course when nesting starts the male will spend the days for the entire period on the nest: the female sits in various roosts around the nest tree.
Perhaps the mobility here is because they have a wide range of roosts available whereas in an urban area they aren't so lucky?
On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 3:16 PM, Philip Veerman <> wrote:
Thanks
for your comments Martin, although I will say I am a bit confused at what we are
discussing. I wonder if (and at this stage assume that) you typed the word
"night" by accident and actually meant day. My comments were in response to
Trish's question about the birds' roost site fidelity. Which naturally I
took to be the daytime roost (as confirmed by the photo). I am not sure but
thought from the tone of her enquiry that Trish may think there is something
wrong with the birds and may not have been aware that they are nocturnal. What I
meant is that they move every night, as being nocturnal hunters they need
to fly around then. It is day when they are not active and would be roosting. I
don't have Gisela Kaplan's
book on the species or indeed any of her books. Unfortunately
uncomplimentary reviews and a perception from having heard her of overstating
several things have put me off and I have enough books for the next 3 lifetimes
anyway. I would not know if or why her book would say they rarely use the same roost for more than 4 nights in
a row. If this refers to perches to hunt from, then that would take a
huge amount of night time research to work out. As surely they don't use a night
roost at all. If it means they
rarely use the same roost for more than 4 days in a row I would understand that, although it would surprise me a bit.
I thought they are more site faithful than that but then I have never had an
opportunity to keep track of any individual. Trish's mention that They haven’t moved now for over two
months – same tree, same branch as telling us they have moved but
returned to the same site each morning, is more towards what I would have
guessed is more typical.
Philip
-----Original Message-----From: martin butterfield
[ Sent: Tuesday, 12 July 2011 10:29
AM
To: Philip Veerman Cc:
Trish Fletcher;
Subject: Re:
[canberrabirds] Question about Tawny Frogmouths
The
roost-fidelity of frogmouths is an interesting question. In Gisela
Kaplan's book on the species she comments that they rarely use the same roost
for more than 4 nights in a row. With the pair that I follow in Carwoola
they have sometimes used the same roost tree for 6 or 7 nights before moving off
to another. Over the 4 years I have been following them they have used 15
different trees as daytime roosts: Some roosts have only been used once or twice
but at least 6 have been used regularly. Usually the pair snuggle together
but occasionally (as today) they might use different trees, up to 100m
apart. They do tend to be faithful to a nest tree. 'My' pair have
used exactly the same site for 3 years in a row and should start work on
refurbishing the nest in the next 3 or 4 weeks. When the nest is active
the male will spend all day on it with the female in the general area. I'd
suggest Trish's friend might be able to locate the nest in September when they
are likely to be brooding. Martin
On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 2:06 PM, Philip Veerman <>
wrote:
Hello
Trish,
It may be a case of curious
wording, but I can tell you with certainty, that if they are alive, unless
someone is hand feeding them, they certainly would have moved every night.
Maybe you are not aware that they are nocturnal. (They are not owls.) So you
are seeing them in the daytime, when they return to their roost. It is fairly
normal for them to be faithful to a particular roost tree. Each night they
will be out hunting in the vicinity and return to their roost tree before
dawn.
The darker one is the male
and the more brown one is the female.
Philip
-----Original
Message-----
From: Trish Fletcher [
Sent: Thursday, 16 June 2011 11:59 AM
To:
Subject:
[canberrabirds] Question about Tawny Frogmouths
Hello Everyone,
I live in Cook. A friend who also lives in Cook ( Booth
Crescent) has two Tawneys snuggled up together in a tree in her front yard.
They haven’t moved now for over two months – same tree, same branch.
They’ve sat through neighbourhood noise, cars and people coming and going from
the house, two young children playing under the tree, etc. A few weeks ago a
branch near them cracked and fell, but they still didn’t move.
I’m hoping someone may be able to explain what is going on
with them.
Any information or even just an educated guess would be
very much appreciated to help ease our burning curiosity!
Many thanks,
Trish Fletcher
It is hard to see from this photo, but one seems to have
more brown around it’s face and the other slightly blacker...?
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