The Tawny Frogmouths are back!

A couple of months ago I introduced my readers to a family of Tawny Frogmouths that had taken residence in the pine tree next door. The day after I took the photos of the birds they flew away but would often return to a tree in a friend's backyard a couple of doors away. She rang me this afternoon to say that they were back so I raced down with the camera to see how much the little ones had grown.

Well, there were only two birds there, one parent and one baby. Apparently one of the babies had been killed and the other two hadn't been seen for some time. It was lovely to be able to get closer to them this time and not have to zoom in with the camera as the younger bird let me get quite close. 

The mum or dad was up higher in the tree and not as easy to spot. They are well camouflaged when sleeping in trees during the day and are hard to spot which of course is a protection against predators. 

It was so nice to see them again as I had looked out for them every day when they were in the tree next door before the littlies were old enough to fly. 

 

It had been a sad week as our two cages of guinea pigs were somehow opened by dogs the other night and we lost the lot. My favourite white guinea pig, Charlie, had fathered three white babies which were were so cute and I used to enjoy giving them carrots from the garden each day and they got so excited when they saw me approaching their cage in the morning as they knew I would always give them veggies after I had watered the garden. They were great little lawnmowers too. :-)

 

We seem to have had an abundance of wildlife once again as after I drove my car into the shed this afternoon I heard a noise and noticed that one of the possums that lives there (messy things that they are) had been disturbed, had woken from his sleep and was climbing around on top of all the rubbish, ahem... I mean boxes, etc. that my husband stores there. I tried not to get too close as they can make quite a threatening noise despite their cute face which I wasn't able to get in the photo unfortunately. They are a protected species in Australia but I sure wish they wouldn't go to the toilet on our cars!

Then for the third time I tried to get a meal ready for dinner when I heard my husband calling me to get the camera and I wondered what on earth was going on this time. He had seen a strange bird in the back yard and caught it so I could take a photo and he thinks it could a baby Brush Turkey. I think this may be a protected species as well. Can anyone identify it? I am not sure what it was doing in our back yard!

We are headed for a weekend in the mid-thirties which is nothing compared to what the southern states have been experiencing but it is still hot for this part of the world which normally has mild summers. However, the heat is expected to bring storms and, as we haven't had any decent rain for weeks, the garden is getting really dry so the rain will be very welcome. Autumn is just around the corner!