Hi Everyone,
There does seem to be several resident pairs of Powerful Owls in the bushland
areas of the Lane Cove catchment area in the northern suburbs of Sydney.
Individual owls are often recorded in suburban gardens at night, particularly
in gardens close to bushland, and are probably searching for possums and
flying-foxes.
Rod Kavanagh of NSW State Forests is probably the best person to comment on
survival rates of offspring, longevity, and the status of PO nest hollows in
the Sydney area. One thing that I am concerned about is the number of PO
roadkills in the Lane Cove Catchment area. I've personally observed four PO
roadkills in this area over the last 2 years, so there have probably been more
road kills observed by others. All four roadkills were on busy arterial roads
that are close or adjacent to bushland areas where POs were known to roost by
day and presumably forage by night. This leads me to ask the following
questions:
q were these birds disturbed from their day-time roosts;
q were they immature birds who were inexperienced at dodging heavy
traffic;
q were they pursuing prey at the time of being hit by a vehicle;
q has it become more difficult for Powerful Owls to dodge vehicles
because of increased traffic on our roads and urban encroachment on their
natural habitat; or
q have road kills been a function of increased numbers of Powerful Owls
in the Lane Cove River Catchment Area?
Regards,
Stephen
Dr Stephen Ambrose
Ryde, NSW
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