Following on from the sighting of two Powerful Owls in the Toowoomba
escarpment forests on Monday last (not Tuesday, as I mistakenly implied in
my previous posting) - a pleasant glass or two on the verandah at Abberton
last night was accompanied for about 45 minutes from around 7pm - not quite
dark - by the regular calling of a Powerful Owl somewhere upstream from the
house.
We don't have any thick scrub on the property, but there are some
heavily-scrubbed gullies along Lockyer Creek just upstream from us, and we
get the occasional Regent Bowerbird and Black-faced Monarch in the garden,
presumably overspill from the softwood scrub areas nearby, so although we
were surprised to hear our first 'home' Powerful Owl, it is a feasible bird
to turn up here.
Two ex-pat English visitors, not familiar with Australian owls, were with us
at the time, giving me the opportunity to conduct an independent ID parade
using the BOC audio tapes while watching for any glimmer of recognition. To
our great satisfaction, as soon as the first Powerful Owl call came up on
the tape they instantly pointed the finger, but despite their protests I
played them the rest of the owls anyway, including the Tytos. The call was
indeed a precise match of the first 50 second sequence of that Powerful Owl
recording by Ed McNabb in Ferntree Gully - rather more a single repeated
note than a clear double.
So, the 185th bird for Abberton, unless we launch a new ticking debate about
a) heard versus seen, or b) maybe close to the property though possibly
not on it - but don't let's do that!
Bill Jolly
"Abberton", Helidon, Qld
ph 07 46976111
fax 07 46976056
email: <>
Visit our website at: http://www.abberton.org <http://www.abberton.org>
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