Friday, November 04, 2005

In the small hours

I couldn't get to sleep last night. I don't want to go into details. At 2am I decided to get out of bed, check my email (eek, eek, I becoming a geek!), did a little web surfing and then proceeded to do some writing.

At about 3am I heard the unmistakeable call of an Australian Owlet-Nightjar, a small nocturnal owl-like bird common in this area. I have heard this species calling many times here and in other places, especially when out camping. When a neighbour (also a birder) called to me one afternoon several years ago I was able to actually see one for the first time. It was in a tree near their back fence. They are amazingly dainty and much smaller than I had anticipated.

We also have some other nocturnal birds that visit our garden. The most common is the Tawny Frogmouth. we love hearing its call near the house and usually grab a torch to search it out.

From time to time we have also had Barn Owls visit and many years ago a Boobook Owl was heard calling nearby.

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