Monday, November 1, 2010

READING A BOOBOOK

Last night, a Boobook Owl turned up opposite my home and positioned itself high in a pine. For twenty minutes it called incessantly: it would let out its 'mo-poke' every three seconds; once it just uttered a 'mo' without the 'poke'. I was unable to get my torch beam onto the bird due to the pine's dense mass of needles.

A couple of weeks back I was out in Morton NP at about 7pm and heard five Boobooks calling from various areas about the gully that holds Bundanoon Creek. Surely, the Boobook's two-syllable hoot is the quintessential Australian night noise.

LJ, November 1 2010.

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