Eastern Barn Owl in West Kambah

[Ace Frawley <>]

Seen perched, in flight, and even on the ground - being mobbed by a group of ravens and magpies along (what I call) Village Creek, behind the Jenke Circuit Buddhist temple and the Indoor Sports Kambah, at 8.25am this morning.  A very beautiful bird and an odd experience (for me, at least) staring into each others eyes for about 30-seconds.  Only three days after Peter Murphy's similar encounter in Civic (see: http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/canberrabirds/2012-03/msg00234.html).  I have counted three reports of this species this autumn, after a bag of them last spring.  Overall a very big year for them when compared to the number of sightings given in the Annual Bird Report the past half a dozen years - that being just one or two per year.