Good morning birders
This morning, I arrived home from my dog walk to the raucous calls of Grey Butcherbirds, Noisy Miners and Australian Magpies. This cacophony of alarm calls came straight from my backyard. I was intrigued and after a quick glance at the melaleuca tree along my fence line I discovered a young Eastern Barn Owl trying hard to stay calm and roost for the day. It was not to be as it took flight shortly after with the mob in hot pursuit. The owl returned for a pass again about four minutes later heading towards the old ADI site. What a great, great bird in my own yard!
On the note of the current influx of Eastern Barn Owls in my area near Penrith; our WIRES branch has had many calls for rescues and for DOA EBOs in the past few weeks. It does appear that an apparent irruption has either reached Sydney’s western outskirts or has occurred locally. My two recent spotlighting sessions out in the lowlands of Richmond have turned up this species with no effort whatsoever; both times. My “old” mate Chris Lloyd even has an EBO in care at present and he is near the city center himself. So a good year for the species, but perhaps not so good as many are getting injured, which is most likely normal, but the large numbers at once mean our raptor carer had eight individuals at various stages of rehabilitation in her flight aviary a week ago.
Cheers Akos