The Tawny Frogmouth situation for 2012

I didn't write up a formal (ie published by COG) report on the behaviour of the pair of Tawny Frogmouths which reside at our place last year.  That was mainly because there was no "stunning" new observation to include.  However I thought it worthwhile putting together a few words for this blog.

I think this image, showing one of the two chicks stretching its wing prior to flight, was the most interesting one I took this year.  (I hesitate to use the word best for an image with such dodgy exposure.)

The 'big picture' was of another successful year with 2 chicks raised to maturity.

The most puzzlesome aspect of the year was my reduced ability to locate the birds.  The situation for the male bird is shown in this table image comparing 2012 and 2011.

This is the equivalent image for the female.

While both birds were harder to find in May and June the female was also MIA for several days while the male was brooding.  I undertook quite a solid, but unsuccessful, search for the birds, including - with their permission - a foray into a neighbour's property.    This is annoying but ultimately, as long as the birds are OK, not a major issue.

By the end of 2012 I had found one or both birds in 25 roosts since I started this project.  2 of those - both towards or in aforementioned neighbour's property - were new for 2012 and 10 of the previous sites were not used by the birds on any day that I found them.  I site - very close to the original nest tree, but some 50m from the current nest was used by the female on 15 occasions during the brooding period.

The most interesting aspect of behaviour related to the "fledging" period.  I have put that word in quotes since I cannot get a clear definition of what it means.  There seem to be two interpretations:

• When the chicks first leave the nest; and
• When the chicks first fly.

Some people have claimed that these periods are identical.  That may be the case for many species but - this year more than in the the past - it was not the case for this family.  For a full week the chicks would leave the nest during the morning and together with the adult male shuffle some 5m along the large branch on which it was located.  All three then sat there, behaving as they would in the nest until about 4pm.  At that point they slowly shuffled back to the nest.  I checked with a spotlight during the night a few times and the chicks were in the nest at least until 10pm.