Sad demise of a Tawny Frogmouth
The Tawny Frogmouth of Australia is one of my favourite birds. I first became acquainted with this lovely bird while on numerous camping trips with my young family back in the 1970s. Its gentle ooom-ooom-ooom call near our tent was strangely soothing. It is one of the iconic sounds of the Australian bush when all is quiet.
From time to time we also hear one calling near our home. When we have the television off, of course. It is a lovely sound to drift off to sleep to, and where we live there is very little traffic on the road passing our home late at night. From time to time we will catch a sight of this secretive bird during the day, perched on a branch trying for all the world to look just like the branch. Many times an individual has crashed against a glass door or window trying to grab a moth that has ventured towards the light.
It is with deep sadness that I report therefore that my wife found a dead Tawny Frogmouth drowned in our swimming pool. Somehow it had been trapped by the water - not that there is much water in it at the moment; the water almost completely disappeared during the long hot and dry summer and with water restrictions I haven’t been able to fill it again. The winter rains have not been sufficient to refill it to normal levels, even with part of the roof rainfall being directed straight into it.
It was a sad day indeed. Such a lovely bird.
I did take a few photos, but they would be a rather morbid addition to my collection of photos on our photo gallery.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Such a shame! Tawny Frogmouths have been recorded in the bushland behind my place but I’ve yet to see one here.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:59 am
Thanks for the comment Alan. That is one of the frustrations of nocturnal species - more often heard than seen.
October 2nd, 2008 at 7:57 pm
My son, aged 11 at the time, had recently moved into a new farm house with his father came in from outside where he had gone to retrieve his wet suit from the line. He said “I’m not going back out there, there’s this thing that looks like a lump of wood sitting on my wet suit” Yep, you guessed it, a tawny frogmouth!
October 2nd, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Ha Ha - that gave us a good laugh Tricia. He is so right - an amazing piece of camouflage is the Tawny Frogmouth.
October 3rd, 2008 at 6:55 am
Hey Alan, hang a wet suit on your washing line!