Not often I hear good old "Mopoke" calling at night but during the past fortnight there has been a Southern Boobook Owl calling out "mopoke" nearly every night and early in the morning.
Was pleasantly suprprised last evening to actually hear three of them, one with a very raspy voice just across the road, one down in the gully about 100m away and another just over the hill.
Good to see the owl population slowly building in the area of the Upper Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
Ahh yes like the count of a midnight time peace. I have one in the park. Is it only the males who call? With 3 it must have been a roudy afair at 3AM.
Ipswich Shire Eastern flanks
My bird books fail to mention which sex does the calling, maybe both do, would be interesting to know. The one down in the gully starts up about an hour after sunset, the raspy one not long after and the one that is a small distance away around 2200hrs.
Nice to hear them at night, quite often the odd Pied Currawong or two will call out during the hours of darkness too, not to mention the local possums rattling and hissing from time to time...
My Currawongs shut it down with the sun. But the ol Curlews were going hard for a while, and when their shift was done the Boobook took over. Still to roll over at 3AM and hear all this this is just beautiful to me. Much much nicer than the phycotic dog down the road with the deaf owners. Be intersting to see if anyone takes over from the Boobook. Huh, you have possum too hey....
Ipswich Shire Eastern flanks