Nature walks with my camera: Hunting for nightlife

After adding all my spottings to the checklist it was clear that I was lacking in the night bird section. I started thinking about where I would go spotlighting and how I was going to get any good photos. I didn't really like the thought of wandering along the river tracks at night by myself and wondered who I would be able to drag along with me.

I started doing some googling to try and find some likely locations when I came across recent news of Powerful Owls roosting nearby. That is when I discovered that you don't need to go out at night to find Owls, you just have to know where to look.

Of course nobody would divulge information of the exact location (which I think is a good thing) and it made for a fun little adventure. I was able to piece together little bits of information from various people's spottings and with the help of google's sattelite maps and some of my own local knowledge of the area narrowed it down to two likely areas.

I found them in the first area - 5 minutes after leaving the car! It helped that they are gigantic birds (60-66cm) and I knew I was looking for 3 of them - 2 adults and a juvenile.

Powerful Owl (juvenile), Ninox strenua

Powerful Owl (2 adults + juvenile), Ninox strenua

Powerful Owl, Ninox strenua

There was also talk of another lone Powerful Owl, 400m up the river. Once again, a few cryptic directions led me to a place that I was all too familiar with - down a steep muddy track that is inaccessible when the water level is high - a favorite spot that our dog, Tesla used to love running around getting muddy at.

But instead of finding an Owl, I found a family of Tawny Frogmouths. What a great morning!

Tawny Frogmouth, Podargus strigoides

Tawny Frogmouth (adult + juvenile),Podargus strigoides

The previous night I had been on a ranger guided walk at the Darebin Parklands and they had pointed out this pair of Tawnies. I guess it's true that once you find one, then you start seeing them everywhere!