I don't know why, but for some reason I love night birds, perhaps just cause they often go unseen and disappear silently in the night. Maybe from the thrill of going spotlighting as a kid, who knows. Anyway, they just seem super cool to me, and exciting to see.
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Anyway, because of that, it's quite a thrill to be sitting here at my PC in suburban Brissie, listening to the high cuckoo-clock "HOO hooo" of a Southern Boobook from one window, while hearing the low deep "oom-oom-oom-oom" thrumming of a Tawny Frogmouth from the other window.
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It seems like they have suddenly got noisy over the past few weeks, but I want to know, where do they go over winter? Or do they just go quiet? Is the noise about spring and breeding? Or does lack of it mean they aren't around?
Good questions, Timmo. I suspect southern boobooks are on or near our property most of the year but they only call for intermittent periods. And it may well be the same for tawny frogmouths although I think they call more in spring than other times of the year. I'd be interested in what other posters have experienced.
Wait!! I've just had a Bo Peep at the 1st edition of The Atlas of Australian Birds which tells me that southern boobooks' calls are "given repeatedly in long bouts all year round but more sustained when breeding". It also says some southern boobooks arrive in Sydney in autumn & winter (probably to avoid Qantas disruptions in spring) but it doesn't say from where.
On the tawny frogmouth, it seems it occupies a permanent territory. There's "no large scale seasonal movement".
So it could well be your southern boobook(s) & tawny frogmouths are around most of the time, timmo.
I'm still interested in what other posters have experienced.
We hear the boobooks here for a week or 2 then nothing for a while, sometimes months. Maybe they find a good food source and hang about to exploit it then move on to another area.
I like listening to the boobooks of a night except a few years ago when there was one who had a broken poke. Instead of calling mopoke it was just mo mo mo mo mo. Drove me nuts waiting for it to finish the call.
John
Where I live the Boobooks started calling a few weeks ago, so did other Owls. That lasted for about two weeks,but at the moment all is strangely quiet. They are there, they will be more vocal around the warmer months.(I hope so!)
M-L
Where I live the Boobooks started calling a few weeks ago, so did other Owls. That lasted for about two weeks,but at the moment all is strangely quiet. They are there, they will be more vocal around the warmer months.(I hope so!)
M-L