Cheers, Dave. The Owls are generally very chill, that's for sure.
Owlcaholic; Bird photography and drawing; Owl Club; Powerful Owl Project; Bird banding; also biomaths, machine learning, bio-imaging; Brisbane, Australia
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Cheers, Dave. The Owls are generally very chill, that's for sure.
The Powerful Owlet and its parent seemed to decide to ignore the mobbing and go to sleep. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
Blue-faced Honeyeater mobbing an unimpressed Powerful Owlet.
Powerful Owlet being mobbed by a Blue-faced Honeyeater this morning in a Brisbane nature reserve. Does the BFH not see those talons and beak? They've got some moxie those BFHs. There were also Noisy Miners and Pied Currawongs getting in on it.
Found a Powerful Owl feather and the remains of a bat within about 5m of the tree I think may be the nest hollow for the new Powerful Owls. Now I'm almost certain it is the nest tree.
And we make such good environments for them in our cities and parks.
They are good for something. And good job on the RBBS, they are such beautiful snakes.
Please excuse the terrible photo. Shot 20 minutes after sunset at ISO 32,000 and at 1/40s handheld 600mm its a miracle you can see anything.
Finally tracked this Owlet down. A new Powerful Owlet in a Brisbane Reserve not previously known to contain Powerful Owls. I think I may also have the nest hollow nailed as well. Interestingly, Noisy Miners started mobbing the hollow while I was watching. Perhaps they remember when Owls were in it?
Too true. And I don't want to get that meat allergy from them either. Not that I eat a lot of meat, but it seems to affect quite a lot of foods.
Sleeping Powerful Owlet sketch. Every drawing is practice for the next.
* and tree-loppers
I'm going to call my comic book The Owlet Avenger. It's definitely going to fight fascism.
How lucky are you!
It was great to see a more than full house at #qagoma for Koyaanisqatsi this evening, almost 45 years after its release. I know it's an incredible film, but I somehow always forget what a totally overwhelming experience it is to see it on the big screen.
Thank you!
Powerful Owlet still looking a bit worried just after being rescued from the road. Every drawing is practice for the next.
Reminds me of when, as an undergrad, I'd photocopy semi-random things to take along to supervisor meetings to make it look like I'd been busy. So maybe undergrad-level.
Wow! Great photos.
Newly-fledged Powerful Owlet at sunset #brisbane #birds #wildoz
Another newly-fledged Powerful Owlet that we found at sunset a couple of days ago. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
Thank you!
No Powerful Owls, but you should have boobooks and barn owls, and you also get masked owls and barking owls in SW WA. The last two I'd guess are mostly outside the city areas.
Will do!
This year we decided to test whether the diet was different at two separated Powerful Owl locations using 20 pellets from each. Now to collate the data the students collected ...
The reviews are in from the 40 Tamborine Mountain College grade 5 students who did Powerful Owl pellet analysis with me and the Powerful Owl Project this morning: one boy who was nearly jumping out of his skin with excitement came up afterwards to tell us, "this was the best day on my life!!!".
The adult male parent of the new Powerful Owlet was asleep in the same tree his partner, a couple of metres away from her. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
The adult female parent of the new Powerful Owlet was about 40m away in another tree. This was a much more sensible roost than the Owlets: more tucked away and less bothered by other birds. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
Thanks, Dave!
That's so cool. Listen for owlet trilling as well, they could well be there now!
Cheers, Gail!
There was a paper that claimed to show that if the face mask of the young Owlet extends beyond the side of the head, then it shows the Owlet is a female. So possibly this Owlet is female. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
The Powerful Owlet looked briefly annoyed as some Blue-faced Honeyeaters were giving it some grief for a minute or two. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
A new Powerful Owlet, fresh out of the nest hollow in a Brisbane park today. This is the one I photographed peeking out of the hollow about a week ago. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
Thank you!
Seeing the Owlets fly for the first time, having been in a dark hollow for almost 2 months, always makes me think of Yves Klein's Leap into the Void.
Lucky you!
It was too dark for photos tonight, but this photo from 3 years ago is an Owlet when it came out of its hollow for the first time and then took flight. Once they leave the hollow they don't go back.
OMG! Before dusk these Powerful Owls were on either side of their nest hollow. After sunset trilling could be heard from the hollow. Then an Owlet face was peaking out. Then it sat on the edge of its hollow trilling. Then it leapt into the air and flew for 1st time as its parents (& us!) watched on.
... but we did find a POwl feather ~100m from the hollow. This was super interesting as the female POwl there had lost her partner 2 years ago, & hadn't been sighted since. But the feather means she's probably still around, and the site is worth investigating some more 2/2 #brisbane #birds #wildoz
We were training a new member of the Powerful Owl Project today in the art of Owl Detecting when we went to a POwl nest hollow we'd visited before. No POwls at the hollow, but there was a sleepy Boobook. After sunset it turned out there were two. No POwls seen ... 1/2 #brisbane #birds #wildoz
You may be right, but I think ticks might be a bit small and fiddly for the Powls 😉
You're very kind, Amanda. At the least, I did learn something from doing the drawing.
I guess you've already looked it up, but it turns out kids from lower socio-economic homes are more likely to live in unstable environments where the best strategy is to take something when it's offered. While posh kids often do better in life for some reason. Who knew?
You're looking at the wrong blue sky.
It was. Part of it may have been having just come out of the nest hollow having been in there for almost 2 months. And the local birds were giving it a lot of grief. Fortunately, it recovered well and was with its sibling about 20-25m up in a gum tree the next day.
No, not Dunning Kruger! That's my favourite! I wasn't too surprised to see the marshmallow test going down, though ... my son aged about 13 guessed what the problem might be. Hopefully the marshmallow test for cuttlefish holds up. I like cuttlefish.
OMG, I thought that was just a name @firstdogonthemoon.bsky.social made up for fun. I have been edumacated today. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Yeah, I know, I read one of the books on it. I was just being a smart alec. I guess there is still some hope in that the Milgram experiments were similarly deeply flawed.
The increasing divide between uni admin & researchers/academics has been very noticeable over the last 25 years. It used to be that a senior researcher/academic could quite easily walk into the vice chancellery & discuss ideas with the VC or a DVC. That access has been cut by many layers of admin.
Surely an undergraduate psyc degree that covered the Stanford Prison Experiment would be looked on favourably.
I don't hate it, but I ... well, anyway, every drawing is practice for the next.
The places I've seen them most tend to be where there are wallabies/kangaroos around. I guess the wallabies/kangaroos are another food source for them, but I don't really know. Anyway, I always keep some tick freeze from the chemist in the car just in case (as well as a snake bandage).
There are a lot of ticks around Brisbane at the moment. Fortunately, I caught this one before it had a chance to attach.
Powerful Owlet rescue update: this morning the rescued Owlet and its sibling were at the top of two gum trees, some 20-25m up, with the parents nearby. That it is up so high says it can fly well. It'll be fine (photo from yesterday). #brisbane #birds #wildoz
Difficult to say if its a girl or boy. One paper showed that If the mask extends beyond the edge of the cheeks then its a girl. But I'm not sure with this one, especially when its upset to be on a road.
It's worth noting that as well as old-growth trees for nesting, undergrowth and mid-story trees are also critical for Powerful Owls (and others) as it allows the Owlets to climb up and gain height if they come out of the hollow too soon, as they so often do. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
I went back to check on the rescued Powerful Owlet after lunch. Sometimes they can be a bit stubborn and will remove themselves from the safe area. But it was in the same spot and looking much more relaxed and calm than earlier. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
They are. They're listed as Under Threat.
It'll be about 55 days since it hatched, plus or minus.
🙂 Andrew Dinwoodie, from the Powerul Owl Project, wondered if it might have been defensively trying to make itself look bigger. But it didn't give the impression it felt threatened, more just out of its depth, like it didn't really know WTF was going on.
It's great to be able to help the POwls, but it's amazing to be able to get so close to one. Usually I'm a long way away attached to a 600mm lens.
4/4 It should be fine (we'll check on it later). But Powerful Owlets are coming out of their hollows all over Brisbane right now, and sometimes they come out slightly early. If you do see one on the ground, be sure and give WIRES rescue a call (24/7): 1300 094 737 #brisbane #birds #wildoz
3/4 My "spy" then, by luck, happened to show up. So we gently shoo-ed it off the road, and back to the copse of trees where it belonged (where its parents were roosting). We managed to get to go up on some branches where it could climb up and get some height. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
2/4 It didn't seem to be injured as it could still do short hop-flights. Mostly likely it had just come out of the hollow a little bit early, which they sometimes do, and needed to get to a safer spot. The local birds were going a bit crazy though, mobbing it. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
1/4 Powerful Owlet rescue! This morning I was checking in on one of the Owlets that one of my "spies" told me had come out of the hollow last night, and I found it on the road!!! Luckily there were no cars, or off-leash dogs in the nearby park. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
And maybe the temperature. There's been a bit of a cold snap in Brisbane these last few days.
Thank you 🙂 It is!
Powerful Owlet peeking out of its nest hollow after sunset today. It didn't seem quite ready to come out forever yet, but probably in the next few days. Its parents were nearby keeping an eye on it, and the Owlet was trilling a lot to let them know it was still there.
It's #InternationalOwlDay. Be sure and protect old-growth trees so we can have more Powerful Owlets like this one. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
And 5 months later we saw the Owlet was all grown up and it was displaying its own Ringtail. A month or so later it had left to find its own territory.
Checking on that Powerful Owlet a few days later it seemed to be doing well.
The new Powerful Owlet we discovered yesterday was at the same location that @lucyparkerpaul.bsky.social and I helped with the release of an Owlet 2 years ago. The release went very well with the adult female quickly flying down and allopreening ("kissing") with the Owlet. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
Lovely!
Thank you! When we show it to kids classes they always want to watch it again 🙂
You can see how windy it was by the way the Powerful Owlet's floof is all being swept to its right.
I often wonder why the Powerful Owlet's fronts are so white as they pop out like Marlene Dietrich under a 1000W arc lamp. It means they can sometimes be bothered by other birds that are not so fond of Owls. Fortunately, the local birds didn't seem to have noticed this one. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
Possibly due to the very blowy wind, the Powerful Owlet woke up after a while and began to look around. Despite everything being a bit new to it, it already looked like it was certain of its place in the world. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
This one was in one of his favourite roosts, so we knew where to look. But even when you practice it is hard to see owls. They blend in and don't move. So you have to stare at each branch and consciously think, "is there an owl on that branch?", "no?", next branch ...
Yes, it's kind of incredible that it can already actually fly, rather than just float like a dandelion.
The papa (pictured) of the new Powerful Owlet was about 40m to the north of the nest tree where the Owlet was sleeping. The mama about 30m to the south ... she was displaying a bat which the Owlet will no doubt have for dinner later. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
Newly fledged and out of the hollow Powerful Owlet sleeping.
A new Powerful Owlet out of the hollow! It was still roosting in the nest hollow tree and wasn't there 2 days ago, so most likely it came out into the world last night. It was very sleepy. #brisbane #birds #wildoz
Thank you, Amanda. It was Charlotte and Bruce Currawong I photographed for 5 years of nesting. But I left UQ a couple of years ago, so I haven't been following them so closely.
Yes, we were heartbroken when the previous female died, and we thought it might take several years for him to pair up again since the bush blocks are so dispersed across Brisbane. When we first saw her "my god there are two!!!" we were overjoyed and could hardly believe it for several days.
You got that right.
The newly-paired female Powerful Owl. We don't usually name the POwls that we monitor for the Powerful Owl Project, the exception being the first pair that started us on owls. We're thinking of calling her Maia, which comes from Greek mythology, means mother, and represents rebirth and growth.
That's right. Ford said something to Arthur about I think he's phoned us to wash his head at us. I'd forgotten that.
The first AI suicide surely has to be a moment in history to mark (Marvin did offer to stick his head in a bucket of water, but I don't think he actually did it, and it's debatable whether he would have ceased functioning).
This has been something of an owl detecting odyssey on & off for 2 years. Last night we finally found this female Powerful Owl near the top of a godawful hill in a bush reserve. We followed her after dusk, and found her, her partner, & a large gum with an owlet trilling in! #brisbane #birds #wildoz
Gorgeous. And great to see you've made it over to here.
In case you didn't know already, Tom Lehrer made all of his songs and recordings copyright free and available for download a few years ago: tomlehrersongs.com/songs/
I know the focus is wrong on this one, but I like it anyway.
Another of the female Powerful Owl guarding her nest hollow yesterday at dusk.
Cheers, Steve. You are very kind.
Well, of course ❤️🦉 We'll probably check in there again in about a week when it's likely that the chick(s) have come out of the hollow. And there are lots of other nest sites that we need to check until then ...
But her front wasn't worn like you'd expect if she'd been in a hollow with Owlets (damn!). After a while 3 noisy miners began mobbing one of the many hollows in the tree (very interesting). And then an Owlet trill from within the hollow just on sunset. Yes! ... 2/2 #brisbane #birds #wildoz
