The local frogmouths must move between your Hills Hoist and mine, Alan! One or other of the pair is usually around – a current roost in the ash tree
over our drive was located from the bird droppings splattered beneath. They have raised a brood in at least two of the last three years.
Steve
Lyons too
From: Alan Ford [
Sent: Monday, 19 February 2018 5:26 PM
To:
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Urbanised Tawny Frogmouth
Every now and then in the last couple of years there has been one or two sitting on the Hills hoist for a few minutes just on dusk. It has not happened every
night and I confess I thought they were owls at first. But careful examination through the kitchen window confirmed Tawney Frogmouths.
Alan
Lyons
From: Geoffrey Dabb
Sent: Monday, 19 February 2018 5:04 PM
To:
Subject: FW: [canberrabirds] Urbanised Tawny Frogmouth
I agree Sz – particularly liked ‘large dark creature’ and ‘chatting neighbours’. Thanks Joan - should be more of such contributions.
From: Suzanne EDGAR
Sent: Monday, 19 February 2018 2:08 PM
To: 'Joan Lipscombe'; 'canberrabirds'
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Urbanised Tawny Frogmouth
Enjoyable account!
Sz
From: Joan Lipscombe
Sent: Monday, 19 February 2018 12:33 PM
To: canberrabirds <>
Subject: [canberrabirds] Urbanised Tawny Frogmouth
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.
