Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺

Young Powerful Owlet falls asleep while intently watching some ducks. This is my favourite Owlet movie ever. We always finish our Powerful Owl talks with it zzzzzzzz #birds #brisbane

William T. Cooper in his book Capturing the Essence says he doubts you will ever paint birds well if you don't understand their anatomy. Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo. Every drawing is practice for the next.

A Noisy Miner that was nesting low right over the path at Oxley Creek Common. Noisy Miners fear nothing. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

Pacific Baza (aka Angry Pigeon) at Oxley Creek Common last week. Birds of prey are usually pretty skitzy around people, but this one didn't seem to care. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

I got a book by the artist William T. Cooper on how to draw birds, and I'm having a lot of fun copying some of his sketches from it. I really admire how sure his hand is when he draws.

Another of the new Powerful Owlet. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

The sleeping parent of the new Powerful Owlet. At dusk it turned out there was another Powerful Owlet that began trilling behind the adult. This was a surprise as Owlet siblings often roost together and the first looked alone. A very successful year for these POwls. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

A new Powerful Owlet! This from a pair that had an owlet that was rescued a couple of years ago, and that we helped with the release of when it had recovered. It looks a lot like that Owlet. So for this season we're up to 15 Owlets, 6 in pairs, 3 singles. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

Powerful Owlet in a suburban Brisbane park this morning. Surprisingly for daytime, it was trilling constantly. But then we saw one of its parents having a Brushtail lunch nearby in the same tree, and the Owlet joined it a few minutes later. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

A new Powerful Owl pair! We had found the female in January at a new site. We'd seen and heard her a few times since, but only her, so we'd begun to think she was on her own. But last night we saw them fly out together, and today we found them roosting next to each other. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

Powerful Owlet sketch. I need to get back into the habit of regularly drawing again. Every drawing is practice for the next.

The floof is beginning to be replaced by chevons (heart/bat pattern) on the front of this Powerful Owlet. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

Powerful Owlet #brisbane #birds #wildoz

Powerful Owlet from a few dusks ago. It's interesting how quickly they switch from being slightly alarmed and surprised by everything when they first come out of the hollow. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

There are Tawny Frogmouths nesting on my street! Here's the male on the nest this afternoon. The males usually do the egg sitting during the day. This is going to be fun to watch, Frogmouths chicks are such muppets. #NotAnOwl #brisbane #birds #wildoz

Powerful Owlet stretching its wings. Even its sibling seems surprised. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

Another of the warm Powerful Owlet from 2 days ago. We checked on it yesterday and it was fine. It was roosting about 50m away in a tree with its sibling, and one of its parents was in the next tree. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

Sleeping Powerful Owl #brisbane #birds #wildoz

One of the parents of the Powerful Owlet was roosting a few metres away in another tree. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

Powerful Owlet in a suburban Brisbane park this morning. I couldn't see its sibling, but hopefully it was just tucked away nearby. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

Powerful Owlet holding a piece of bark. In 5 years of monitoring Powerful Owls we've never seen one holding a non-prey item before. Weird. Sometimes in the evening you'll see the Owlets practicing attacking branches and vines, sometimes even flying with them, but not this. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

Powerful Owlet in a Brisbane park last night leaving the hollow it hatched in and taking its first hop fly. You can hear its mama bleating to the Owlet as she watches on from nearby. It'll not return to the hollow. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

A new Powerful Owlet looking out of a previously unknown nest hollow. And then as I was watching the Owlet and its parents, fireflies began surrounding me and the nest tree. A good night out.

I'm really looking forward to doing Powerful Owl pellet analysis with @lucyparkerpaul.bsky.social and Andrew Dinwoodie from @birdlifeoz.bsky.social with the Grade 5s from Tamborine Mountain College tomorrow. They get so excited when they find a possum jaw or a bat claw in their pellet.

It is astonishing how quickly when out of the hollow the Owlets switch from a look of slightly overwhelmed worry to one of very centred intentness. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

The Papa of the Powerful Owlet asleep about 3m away. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

Peaking Powerful Owlet #brisbane #birds #wildoz

The Powerful Owlet looking like it was thinking about fledging two nights before. It waited one more night. #brisbane #birds #wildoz

Powerful Owlet on its 1st day in the sun having fledged from the hollow the previous night. In the evening the adult female went to the hollow & came out with a Ringtail Possum tail. This is super interesting as we're not aware of Powerful Owls being known to cache food in the hollow. #birds #wildoz

Checking on the Powerful Owlet that fledged on the 4th of July ("Jefferson", also showed interest in airplanes) it was the classic "that's some really good scat on the ground", looks up, "Oh." #brisbane #birds #wildoz