birding-aus

Fatal Brush with Owl

To: "'Carl Clifford'" <>
Subject: Fatal Brush with Owl
From: "Philip Veerman" <>
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 16:41:34 +1000
Well that is assuming it was Noisy Miners. It says "native mynas". Given
that this is not an identifiable name, that could be all sorts of things
or a mixture, e.g. Common (Indian) Mynas. But then again it is not a
technical piece of writing and the error could have been made by the
observer, the reporter, the editorial staff, etc. I read the first
message and I did not even notice the error. Given that we have used
names of "native cat" and "marsupial mouse" for various marsupials for
decades, it is not really so severe a mistake.

Philip

-----Original Message-----From: 
 On Behalf Of Carl
Clifford
Sent: Saturday, 23 April 2011 11:10 PM  To: Chris Charles       Cc:
       Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Fatal Brush
with Owl


Many residents of Sydney's Upper North Shore would be saying " More  
Power to the Owls". Pity the journo could not get the spelling of  
Noisy Miner right. But then, hey, s/he/it is only a journalist and  
after all, they only deal with facts , not words.

Cheers,

Carl Clifford


On 23/04/2011, at 8:49 PM, Chris Charles wrote:


 From North Shore Times 14 APR 2011
http://north-shore-times.whereilive.com.au/news/story/fatal-brush-with-a
n-owl/
FATAL BRUSH WITH OWL

THIS Powerful Owl has a message for brush turkeys who may harbour  
dreams of taking over the North Shore - not in my backyard.

Mary Maloney was enjoying a quiet afternoon at her Pymble home on  
March 17 when the tranquility was broken with the cries of distressed  
native mynas.

"We live in a fairly bushy part of Pymble and there is remnant forest  
and a creek in the backyard," Ms Maloney said.

"The mynas usually get disturbed if there is anything unusual in the  
trees and they were just absolutely frantic in the forest," she said.

When she walked into her backyard she quickly saw why, spotting a  
giant bird of prey nestled in a palm frond with the unfortunate,  
already dead brush turkey clasped in its mighty talons.

Ms Maloney said it was the first time she had seen one with a  
conquered brush turkey.

She found herself just below the owl, almost close enough to grab the  
dangling turkey if she had wanted to, and estimated the owl was about  
61cm in length.

Sensing a very rare photo opportunity she grabbed her camera and the  
owl glanced in her direction with a perturbed expres- sion before  
turning away and dismissing her. "He looked like he was thinking 'what  
are you doing with that?' But then just sort of majestically turned  
his head around and looked away," she said.

The owl stayed perched in her yard until sundown when it spread its  
wings and flew off down the creek line with the dead turkey still in  
its grip.

While the turkey is long gone, Ms Maloney has been left with enduring  
memories from the close encounter.



Chris Charles
0412 911 184

33deg 47'30"S
151deg10'09"E

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