Little Owl Eastbourne Wellington

[kengeorge]

Have not heard the little owl call again, but hear the local morepork most nights so the earlier call must have been that, my mistake. It's been fascinating observing the large flock of sparrows in the backyard around the feeder, not had that opportunity before. "Flock sparrow" is a different creature from "individual sparrow" or those in small groups (less than a dozen). Must be an evolutionary adaptation that's developed -big flocks obviously more visible, noisier and attract predator attention more readily than a small group foraging on the ground. The vocal interaction is different too, the 'churring' chatter (which the backyard tui has learned to mimic) seems to only occur when the sparrows get over a critical mass (40-50 individuals).

[kengeorge]

Recording of the backyard tui with the 'chatter' element in the song sequence. Muritai Rd traffic noise in background.

[andrewcrossland]

I was up in Wellington last week so went for a spot of Little Owl searching - found this guy on an innocuous perch at Te Papa. He didn't blink once over the ten minutes I was watching him and posed for a few quick photos........

owl 1.JPG (41.55 KiB) Viewed 978 times