Hi Rod,
I remember all the hype in the Toowoomba Chronicle in 1975 about screaming women in Redwood Park and as you say there was the thought in those times that the culprit was a Powerful Owl.
I would refer you to our paper in Sunbird Volume 37 # 2. “Changes in the Occurrence of Birds and Conservation of Bird Habitats in the Pittsworth Shire (now part of Toowoomba Regional Shire), Darling Downs, since 1972”
A Barking Owl was recorded by Betty Temple Watts and ourselves in the Irongate Conservation Park in May, June, and July 1972 and in one instance roosting in a tree besides Betty’s cottage where we were able to observe the bird at close quarters from inside.
John and Ruth Walter
From: Hobson Rod [mailto:Rod.Hobson@nprsr.qld.gov.au] Sent: Wednesday, 25 July 2012 9:37 AM To: Corben@hoarybat.com Cc: jayasphere@skymesh.com.au; chris.sanderson@gmail.com; davidtaylor1@optusnet.com.au; Ruth & John Subject: Barking Owls in SEQ
Chris,
How are you, Mate? I’ve just been reading the follow-up on Greg’s sighting of Barking Owl at Lake Broadwater recently; a good record. I’ve spent a lot of time around that place but never seen this owl there. With regard to this species’ presence in SEQ I have a few records. It was seen in Redwood Park at the foot of the Toowoomba Range on 25.11.75 by Alan Graham of the Toowoomba Bird Observers and I saw it here again on the 23.10.77. There was some correspondence in the local rag The Chronicle at the time of the 1975 sighting, of people reporting sounds like “a braying donkey and screaming girls in Redwood” that were identified by a local ‘birdwatcher’ as being those of the Powerful Owl. The Powerful Owl had first been recorded in Redwood around this time on 19.04.75. I’m not sure who the local birdwatcher was who identified these mystery calls, as that of the Powerful Owl rather than a possible Barking Owl. I do believe, however that strenua was for a long time thought to be the culprit before it was eventually proved that the Barking Owl to be so.
When I was at Gatton Uni in 1992-94 I was living at Winwill near Tent Hill. I distinctly remember being rudely disturbed from my sleep in the very early morning (17.02.92) by a chilling wail, as if of a woman in great distress; a ‘screaming woman’ cry as this owl’s call is often described. It also had the resident horses and our dogs fooled, as well. When I had gathered my wits I searched with a spotlight and found a Barking Owl perched atop a pile of old timber in our back yard – mystery solved. I only recorded it that one night. though; never thereafter. I believe that John Hadley saw this bird a short time after at Peachey Swamp, however. This wetland is just behind our residence at Winwill of the time. This was the only time that I’ve ever heard the screaming-woman cry of this owl and it was given while the bird concerned was in flight, as I seem to recollect of the instance.
When I was on Fraser Island (1995-2001) I saw a pair of Barking Owls fairly regularly there; a resident pair in the camping grounds at Dundubara. They were fairly well known to the local rangers and I remember showing them to Michael Mathieson on one occasion. I also had a very sick Barking Owl handed in to me by a resident of Happy Valley on the island at one stage. It subsequently died and it was thought to have eaten a Bush Rat or Black Rat that had originally taken a poison bait. I’m pretty sure this owl is now in the Q.M. reference collection.
The old timers of the Flagstone Creek/Stockyard Creek area below the Toowoomba Range used to talk of Banshee Owls being present there ‘in the old days’. I’m pretty sure that they referred to Barking Owls and not any of the Tyto spp., as they differentiated these respective birds by their calls. They referred to the Tytos as Screech Owls based on their calls. One of my friends from Flagstone Creek who knew his wildlife pretty well recorded a Banshee Owl (not a Screech Owl) from Gorman’s Gap in the early 1980’s. I’m pretty sure that it was a Barking Owl to which he referred. There was also some talk of Barking Owl from the Ballard/Spring Bluff area a few years ago but this was never confirmed.
Regards,
Rod H.
Hi John
You’ve awoken some old memories there!
I well remember that first Redwood Park Powerful Owl. Rod found it roosting on a branch overhanging the creek at the extreme lower end of the park early on the Saturday morning of 19th April 1975. We went back there together straight away, it was the first Powerful Owl for both of us. Then we searched around for someone with a camera who could record the bird, and Marilyn Jacobs came down later the same day – I’ve still got the photo.
As to the mystery ‘screaming woman’ calls along the range highway in those days, I think my suggestion was that in that park alongside the highway so close to Toowoomba, the possibility of an actual screaming woman shouldn’t necessarily be ruled out. The local rag was never very good at sourcing accurate background on these things – I remember more than once seeing stories about someone who found a brown snake in the garden and mattocked it to death, with a picture of proud victor dangling the corpse which was labelled as a King Brown, presumably because someone thought the King Brown sounded bigger and more deadly than the more common Eastern Brown.
I don’t know if you’ve got a copy of that Powerful Owl photo Rod – I’ll dig it out and send it to you.
All the best
Bill
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Hi Rod!
I notice you used my old Email – I had to close that because of too much spam.
I have only seen Barking Owls in SEQ near Blackall, in a patch of wetter forest, and at Kenilworth sewerage pond, where I watched one chase a Vespadelus pumilus I was spotlighting. I avoided any guilt for that because the bat avoided the owl! In all the time I spent in the Conondales, this was my only recording from the area.
I once heard a screaming woman call, in Victoria, but never saw the owl. I suppose it might have been human… But it also might have been Sooty, which I knew nothing about at the time. Even after years of seeing Sootys in Qld, I would occasionally hear one at close range, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up for a brief moment till I realised what I’d heard!
And just a warning about Owl calls – years ago several of us heard a Barking Owl in the Grampians of Victoria. It was totally convincing, except that over a period of a few minutes, it gradually morphed its calls into Powerful Owl calls. Powerful was the actual culprit, as we were able to confirm visually. But for a while, it was giving very good imitations of Barking, and had we not followed it up, we would have been completely convinced a Barking was present.
Cheers, Chris.
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