The Tale of Two Tawny Frogmouths
A few days ago I started a category on my photography blog for photos of the Tawny frogmouths. I also did a post on the birds in general ages ago. Well it seems like ages ago. In this post I will tell what I know of their story.
We have had a pair of Tawny Frogmouths living in some gum trees, but a while back I could only ever see one. As it is the nesting season I figured they must have a nest somewhere, I looked for one but didn't find it. Until on morning, my sister and I were wandering around outside when I saw something.
"Hey Jane that looks like an owl! (Note: Tawny Frogmouths are not actually owls) Actually it could be an owl."
"Really where."
"Up there, it is sitting right where I saw that nest a while ago, I never thought of it being a Tawny Frogmouths nest."
Then a few days ago Mummy found a parent Frogmouth sitting on the grass next to a little lump of feathers. We have now worked out that the little Tawny Frogmouth had fallen out of the nest somehow. The other parent Tawny Frogmouth is still sitting on the nest. Talking about baby birds and nests we had a Noisy Miner bird nest with two eggs in it but then something killed the mother bird and crushed the eggs. later that day we saw a white cat slinging around by the creek. We have seen the cat again since then.
So we were worried that our baby Tawny Frogmouth would not survive long on the ground. It took the whole day for it to get up onto the bottom rail of one of our (sorta ornamental) fences. 
The mother/father glared at me whenever I came close to take photos of them. The little one hisses and opened up its mouth. They survived the first night and sat close next to each other through the pouring rain. They were still there the next morning. 
Then yesterday morning we could not see them. I wandered around outside looking, knowing that they can be really difficult to see. I couldn't see them, but I thought I heard them or at least one of the adults calling softly. I thought the sound came from in some bushes in our neighbors yard (they have a big dog), but I couldn't really tell where the sound came from. I pushed through the native wattles along our side of the fence and scanned the bushes, I couldn't see anything. Well I could see things but none of them looked like Tawny Frogmouths. I never found any feathers, which are usually the mark of a cat, But I found no Tawny Frogmouths either. Most other members of my family also went a looking for them too.
Then this morning we found them. Sitting on the fence of our vegetable garden. (well it is meant to grow vegetables) We had looked there yesterday, we still don't know where they were yesterday but they are back. For another day at least.
Lord willing that nasty cat will have to find some other food. Alternatively If we catch it.... or if my saucepan catches it.... Well we shall wait and see.
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