21st March, ARDC with @birdlifeoz.bsky.social & Open Ecoacoustics is running a workshop in Brisbane for researchers, citizen scientists & conservationists on the Powerful Owl Project. @lucyparkerpaul.bsky.social & I will be talking on The Art of Owl Detecting!
www.eventbrite.com.au/e/voices-of-...
On Friday night we got to see the male Powerful Owl sit on the edge of the nesting hollow and "purr" for several minutes, before entering the hollow as the female looked on. Purring seems to be how the males say, "hey, check out this hollow!"
[Photo of a female at the same hollow from 2 years ago]
I'm hoping if you do Wordle while waiting for the owls to start calling, the effect is double.
Female Powerful Owl
Female Powerful Owl in suburban Brisbane just before sunset today. After sunset she met up with her partner and mated only about 20m from a nesting hollow!!!! This is way way early to be doing that, usually it would be in late April. Interesting data for the POwl Project.
#brisbane #birds #wildoz
Initially, many of the owl deaths had appeared accidental, as they had been struck by cars.
But after conducting a series of $300 tests, it became clear a common product sold in supermarkets was to blame.
au.news.yahoo.com/300-tests-sp...
Thank you for your kind words 😊. I think you may be thinking of my owl buddy @lucyparkerpaul.bsky.social who also posts on Owls and their lives in suburban Brisbane.
Didn't find any Powerful Owls, but there was this beautiful little Boobook right on sunset today.
Then giving me a once over.
Then resting them.
Female Powerful Owl flexing her talons.
#brisbane #birds #wildoz
The photo is from 3 years ago, but when she was looking grown up. If you look at my pinned video thatis her when she was much younger and floofier.
Female Powerful Owlet from 3 years ago today. By this stage they are almost indistinguishable from the adults. But they still trill rather than hoo, and sometimes the way they look at you still gives them away.
#brisbane #birds #wildoz
Earlier, the female Powerful Owl was briefly interested in me, but soon fell asleep, later waking & investigating a nest hollow with her partner. Usually females go into the hollow around 1st week of May in Brisbane, with hollow investigating a few weeks before that. So this is surprisingly early.
A terrible photo as the sun had set, but Powerful Owl pair catching up after dusk having roosted 100m apart all day. The female was roosting only about 50m from a nest hollow, and at dusk they investigated it with the male perched and looking in, which is crazy early in the year.
#birds #wildoz
Thank you.
Learning to use Aquarelle pencils, Australian Boobook sketch. This Boobook was a surprise in that it was living in a known Powerful Owl nest hollow. Fortunately, the POwls chose to have their 2 Owlets in another hollow that season. Every drawing is practice for the next.
Thanks, Maximus! She is indeed beautiful.
Thanks, Dave!
Female Powerful Owl roosting over a creek in suburban Brisbane this morning.
#brisbane #birds #wildoz
I'm always happy to talk Powls 🙂
Could be a powl that struck. The other possibility might be a dog? There are a lot of off lease dogs walked there.
It's best not to share locations as large numbers of photographers show up and disturb breeding. At one location that got shared a few months ago on social media the next morning four *groups* of photographers were stamping around looking for the POwls. The ones that are shared tend to breed less ☹️
The folklore is that if a POwl drops it's prey, as this Powerful Owl with a large Brushtail did, then it'll not retrieve it. But we saw this POwl fly down at dusk, pick up the 1/2 Brushtail, and take it to feed its chick and partner in the nearby nest tree hollow. So the folklore isn't correct.
POwls eat Possums from the head down. So if you find the bottom half of a Possum on the ground, as in this photo, you can be 99.99% certain its from a POwl loosing its grip on the Possum when it's roosting.
The partner of the female Powerful Owl. He fell asleep a few seconds later.
Female Powerful Owl displaying a bat during a break in the rain this morning is Brisbane. If you look closely you can see the head of her partner at the bottom.
#brisbane #birds #wiloz
I wouldn't want to be the simulated me that they torture all day showing it ads to find out what I might be manipulated into buying. Free the simulated me!
Nice! This is in the current Land for Wildlife magazine. Great to see the @birdlifeoz.bsky.social Powerful Owl Project getting coverage, and nice to be name checked :-)
Powerful Owl, the female I think as she has a notably whiter front than the male of this pair, in a suburban Brisbane park this morning. I don't know that she was going to get any sleep what with the incessant mowing going on in the park.
#brisbane #birds #wildoz
