Last night around 9pm, well after dusk, we we saw a large, dark creature standing on our concrete drive in suburban Campbell. As soon as it glided away silently to hunt we realised it was a Tawny Frogmouth. The bird was catching what turned out to be grasshoppers
and possibly moths, using light from the streetlight near the top of our drive. It proceeded to hang around for about an hour using various perches (top of our concrete mail box, top of metal arch close to our front door and our house roof) in between sorties
to catch food.
The bird looked in very good condition. Due to its large size and strong marking we took it to be a male. It was very relaxed, not moving when we were almost within touching distance when it was perched on the arch and when we turned on
our outside front light to get a better view. It did fly away from the top of our mail box when chatting neighbours, out for a late evening stroll, passed by, but only went as far as our roof and soon returned to the task of hunting around the street light.
This is the first time we have seen a frogmouth in the area, though there are lots of large brittle gum street trees and we are close to the ridge
(Mount Pleasant NP) between here and the airport. Some time ago a near neighbour mentioned that she had once seen a large owl-like bird perched in a tree in her garden, but had only seen it once.
Joan Lipscombe
