Hi Stephen
I saw a Powerful Owl fly out briefly over the traffic at Terry's
Creek on Epping Road one night. Peak Hour traffic but dark. It flew
out of the bush on the northern side of the road into the open space
above the cars then quickly turned back and disappeared into the
bush. It was at a height of at least 5 metres though. Didn't see
anything that it was chasing but it all happened pretty quickly.
Cheers
Dave Stowe
On 11/01/2007, at 3:07 PM, Stephen Ambrose wrote:
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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