Spring is usually a lovely time of year, but it’s not all sweetness and light in the natural world.
As creatures compete with each other in the race to breed, things can get nasty.
A male tawny frogmouth found that out the hard way when it was tumbled from the sky by a larger bird and crashed screeching to earth on our property near Tea Gardens.
Frogmouths are big, owl-like night hunters that can grow up to half-a-metre from their hook-tipped bills to their tail feathers, though this one had obviously met an even bigger bird.
Fearing it had been mortally wounded, we called local wildlife expert David Matheson for advice.
David is a member of Hunter Wildlife and he left his lunch to come and inspect the injured bird.
After gently feeling for broken bones or dislocated joints, he diagnosed nothing worse than a few missing feathers and a case of shock.
He placed the owl in a fork in a nearby tree and waited till it recovered sufficiently to fly off.
“Wildlife can get quite wild at this time of the year,” David said. “All we can do is try to help when they get hurt.”
Adrienne Ingram
Myall Koala and Environment Group
As creatures compete with each other in the race to breed, things can get nasty.
A male tawny frogmouth found that out the hard way when it was tumbled from the sky by a larger bird and crashed screeching to earth on our property near Tea Gardens.
Frogmouths are big, owl-like night hunters that can grow up to half-a-metre from their hook-tipped bills to their tail feathers, though this one had obviously met an even bigger bird.
Fearing it had been mortally wounded, we called local wildlife expert David Matheson for advice.
David is a member of Hunter Wildlife and he left his lunch to come and inspect the injured bird.
After gently feeling for broken bones or dislocated joints, he diagnosed nothing worse than a few missing feathers and a case of shock.
He placed the owl in a fork in a nearby tree and waited till it recovered sufficiently to fly off.
“Wildlife can get quite wild at this time of the year,” David said. “All we can do is try to help when they get hurt.”
Adrienne Ingram
Myall Koala and Environment Group
