Re: Frogmouth on time

[Martin Butterfield <>]

At times I worry about my observational skills.   This morning coming back from our dog walk - within 30m of our house - i glanced at the ground and noticed a lot of whitewash at the foot of a spindly tree.  On looking up, there was the female Frogmouth.  

From the amount of guano she - and/or her partner - have spent quite a bit of time there.  And I would estimate I walk past this point, on average 6 times a day.  My only defence is that she was rather more camouflaged by foliage than usual.

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

On Mon, 24 Sep 2018 at 05:55, Martin Butterfield <> wrote:

I used the average time 'my' pair of Tawny Frogmouths spend building their nest (16 days) as a predictor of when the male would commence brooding   That indicated he'd assume the position this morning: and so he did.

This has surprised me a little as the pair's behaviour has changed this year.  They seem to have found a new daytime roost site in 2018 as, while I had seen them a few times after dark, hunting on our lawn, I didn't find during the day until 25 August.  Since that date they have usually roosted in a tree close to the nest site but have never roosted snuggled together,  The male has usually perched on a small dead branch about 50cm above the female.  As this behaviour is very different to the past I have speculated that one of the previous pair has died and a new partner acquired.  (As the have used the same nest site - with plenty of, to me, similar alternative sites available in the area - I have assumed at least one of them is of the pair that has roosted here in the past.

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/