Hi John
You've awoken some old memories there!
I well remember that first Redwood Park Powerful Owl. Rod found it roosting on
a branch overhanging the creek at the extreme lower end of the park early on
the Saturday morning of 19th April 1975.
We went back there together straight away, it was the first Powerful Owl for
both of us. Then we searched around for someone with a camera who could record
the bird, and Marilyn Jacobs came down later the same day - I've still got the
photo.
As to the mystery 'screaming woman' calls along the range highway in those
days, I think my suggestion was that in that park alongside the highway so
close to Toowoomba, the possibility of an actual screaming woman shouldn't
necessarily be ruled out. The local rag was never very good at sourcing
accurate background on these things - I remember more than once seeing stories
about someone who found a brown snake in the garden and mattocked it to death,
with a picture of proud victor dangling the corpse which was labelled as a King
Brown, presumably because someone thought the King Brown sounded bigger and
more deadly than the more common Eastern Brown.
I don't know if you've got a copy of that Powerful Owl photo Rod - I'll dig it
out and send it to you.
All the best
Bill
> From:
> To: ; ;
>
> Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 14:45:49 +1000
> CC:
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Barking Owls in SEQ
>
> Hi Rod,
>
> I remember all the hype in the Toowoomba Chronicle in 1975 about screaming
> women in Redwood Park and as you say there was the thought in those times
> that the culprit was a Powerful Owl.
>
> I would refer you to our paper in Sunbird Volume 37 # 2. "Changes in the
> Occurrence of Birds and Conservation of Bird Habitats in the Pittsworth
> Shire (now part of Toowoomba Regional Shire), Darling Downs, since 1972"
>
> A Barking Owl was recorded by Betty Temple Watts and ourselves in the
> Irongate Conservation Park in May, June, and July 1972 and in one instance
> roosting in a tree besides Betty's cottage where we were able to observe the
> bird at close quarters from inside.
>
> John and Ruth Walter
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Hobson Rod
> Sent: Wednesday, 25 July 2012 9:37 AM
> To:
> Cc: ; ;
> ; Ruth & John
> Subject: Barking Owls in SEQ
>
>
>
> Chris,
>
>
>
> How are you, Mate? I've just been reading the follow-up on Greg's sighting
> of Barking Owl at Lake Broadwater recently; a good record. I've spent a lot
> of time around that place but never seen this owl there. With regard to this
> species' presence in SEQ I have a few records. It was seen in Redwood Park
> at the foot of the Toowoomba Range on 25.11.75 by Alan Graham of the
> Toowoomba Bird Observers and I saw it here again on the 23.10.77. There was
> some correspondence in the local rag The Chronicle at the time of the 1975
> sighting, of people reporting sounds like "a braying donkey and screaming
> girls in Redwood" that were identified by a local 'birdwatcher' as being
> those of the Powerful Owl. The Powerful Owl had first been recorded in
> Redwood around this time on 19.04.75. I'm not sure who the local birdwatcher
> was who identified these mystery calls, as that of the Powerful Owl rather
> than a possible Barking Owl. I do believe, however that strenua was for a
> long time thought to be the culprit before it was eventually proved that the
> Barking Owl to be so.
>
>
>
> When I was at Gatton Uni in 1992-94 I was living at Winwill near Tent Hill.
> I distinctly remember being rudely disturbed from my sleep in the very early
> morning (17.02.92) by a chilling wail, as if of a woman in great distress; a
> 'screaming woman' cry as this owl's call is often described. It also had the
> resident horses and our dogs fooled, as well. When I had gathered my wits I
> searched with a spotlight and found a Barking Owl perched atop a pile of old
> timber in our back yard - mystery solved. I only recorded it that one night.
> though; never thereafter. I believe that John Hadley saw this bird a short
> time after at Peachey Swamp, however. This wetland is just behind our
> residence at Winwill of the time. This was the only time that I've ever
> heard the screaming-woman cry of this owl and it was given while the bird
> concerned was in flight, as I seem to recollect of the instance.
>
>
>
> When I was on Fraser Island (1995-2001) I saw a pair of Barking Owls fairly
> regularly there; a resident pair in the camping grounds at Dundubara. They
> were fairly well known to the local rangers and I remember showing them to
> Michael Mathieson on one occasion. I also had a very sick Barking Owl handed
> in to me by a resident of Happy Valley on the island at one stage. It
> subsequently died and it was thought to have eaten a Bush Rat or Black Rat
> that had originally taken a poison bait. I'm pretty sure this owl is now in
> the Q.M. reference collection.
>
>
>
> The old timers of the Flagstone Creek/Stockyard Creek area below the
> Toowoomba Range used to talk of Banshee Owls being present there 'in the old
> days'. I'm pretty sure that they referred to Barking Owls and not any of the
> Tyto spp., as they differentiated these respective birds by their calls.
> They referred to the Tytos as Screech Owls based on their calls. One of my
> friends from Flagstone Creek who knew his wildlife pretty well recorded a
> Banshee Owl (not a Screech Owl) from Gorman's Gap in the early 1980's. I'm
> pretty sure that it was a Barking Owl to which he referred. There was also
> some talk of Barking Owl from the Ballard/Spring Bluff area a few years ago
> but this was never confirmed.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Rod H.
>
>
>
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