Hi James and birders,
"Is it normal that these
> Owls are in suburbs such as Albert Park and if not, why would he /
> she be there?"
I live in Coburg, Melbourne in a particularly treeless area, km from nearest
tree-ed parkland and not far from Sydney Rd/1 block from very busy Bell
Street. I do have native trees in my (small) garden - manna gum,
Lemon-scented, Allocasuarina verticulata etc etc
One evening about 6m ago I was up a ladder in my street tree (Lophostemon
confertus), when an owl (probably a Boobook - we were both very surprised to
meet almost nose to nose) landed just in front of me.
I suspect the reason it was in my tree was that my neighbour, at that time,
used to toss up to 1litre of grain in my front yard for pigeons (I won't go
into that) and therefore I had a rather good mouse population living in the
front yard.
Trees - lots of mice, what more could an owl want (except a mate and hollows
which I sadly could not provide)
There are Powerful Owls in the big city parks and a couple of years back a
Powerful Owl roosted for days/weeks in a tree outside a 2nd storey office
window in Port Melbourne (I think). Much discussed on this site.
Urban owls are about, even in unlikely suburbs of Melbourne! I suspect urban
owls learn to be very quiet - no calling and circumspect about most of their
activities.
AND I guess they also get about mostly unnoticed, due to lack of public
knowledge/interest as being discussed in another thread! Plus one of my pet
hates - the bullshit about stranger danger and threats that lurk in
bushes/trees/streets at night. (which usually results in any native shrubs -
even groundcovers!! we manage to get grown in these areas being removed for
'safety' reasons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Wendy Moore
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