Hi Eric,
I am interested in your mention of the tawny frogmouths nesting.
I live in Guildford, a NE suburb of Perth, WA. We have long had regular
sightings of a tawny frogmouth roosting in our street.
In the first week of September, at dusk, I set off to check it out and could
easily hear two birds "crooning" to each other and was able to quickly track
them down to a newly built nest in a paperbark tree (Melaleuca) in an adjoining
wetland area. Over the next ten days the birds were never on the nest during
the day but were regularly seen roosting together in the same tree or closely
adjoining trees. At dusk I regularly came across them at the nest talking to
each other.
Since then, ie about 23rd September, I have only ever seen one bird roosting
and still nothing on the nest during the day. I was unable to check them out
at dusk for a number of reasons and whenever I looked for them much more than
an hour after dark I invariably came up with a blank. I assumed they were out
feeding.
This last week, I had decided that they must have built a second nest and that
the second bird was probably brooding. Then on Monday evening, 6th October, I
was able to again look for them at dusk and again found a single bird at the
nest calling but with no answer from a second bird. The bird was quite a lot
more nervous than on previous occasions and stopped calling once I got close
whilst on previous occasions the birds took absolutely no notice of my
movements at all and carried on talking to each other regardless. Last night,
Tuesday, I could only check them late and as usual came up with a blank. It is
now over four weeks since I first came across the pair active at this nest and
it seems strange that there have been no eggs, brooding etc in that time.
I have read up a bit about frogmouths' nesting habits in David Holland's
excellent book and also a bit from HANZAB but would be interested if any one
else has experience on their courting and nesting behaviour. I am a bit
concerned that my frogmouth may have lost its partner.
regards
Ben
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