To all Birding Aus subscribers who may be concerned,
I and a fellow birder recently competed in the Victorian Twitchathon on Nov
10&11. We had heaps of fun and saw some quality birds. However one bird that
we heard at Toolangi State Forest was claimed as Masked Owl, purely on the
nature of the call and my previous experience with the species. The site being
re-visited a week later in an attempt to re-locate and see the bird resulted in
the appearance of none other than a Sooty Owl, uttering the same call as was
heard a week prior. Assuming this was the same bird as heard during the
Twitchathon, I am retracting the original record of Masked Owl, and replacing
this with Sooty Owl.
I would like to offer an apology to those who may have attempted to go and find
this bird in the belief that it was a Masked Owl, and I hope that it has not
caused great inconvenience to anyone. The claim was made by me and not my
birding colleague.
Out of interest, does anyone have any first-hand experience with a Sooty Owl
call that is virtually identical to the regular Masked Owl call, ie a long,
unwavering, heavy screech with the occasional slight upward inflection?
I've not heard a Sooty call in this manner ever and am wondering if it may be a
juvenile bird uttering either a begging or contact call, with intervals between
each screech of about 5-10 seconds. The bird in question called this way
relentlessly for at least half an hour during the Twitchathon visit, and for at
least an hour last weekend. It was still calling as we left the area.
Again, apologies to all concerned.
Good Birding
Steve Davidson
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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