We arrived at 9:21PM at the O’donohue Picnic ground in Sherbrooke Forest to test my new christmas present, a spotlight. You see, to go looking for night birds, you need a bright torch (a spotlight). You then scan around looking for nocturnal birds.
Before I left, I researched some of the nocturnal species we might encounter and their calls. The three species that were likely were the Tawny Frogmouth (which isn’t an owl), the Australian Boobook and maybe the Powerful Owl. I haven’t seen either the Boobook or the Powerful Owl. So, with this in mind we headed out.
The car park was dark and empty as we pulled in. I slung my backpack over my shoulder grabbed my torch, and started down the track. It was an eerie night as we plodded down the track, the only sound our soft footsteps. Then two Laughing Kookaburras cackle nearby, only adding to the vibe. At this point, I had my torch on the low red mode. Then I worked out that with that, I wouldn’t be able to see an bird if it was 30m away from me. So I switched to the spotlight mode and if I saw something, I would switch back to red as not to hurt the birds eyes.
Moving forward, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos squawked in the distance as they settled down for the night. All sorts of Moths fluttered around my torch. Then in the distance we heard a boo-book. Ah! Our first nocturnal bird but it was calling far off in the bush in the opposite direction so we continued forward.
We walked down to the Sherbrooke Falls and back up again. As we walked back, something caught my eye in a tree. After a peering at from different angles for about 10 mins, we think it was a stick. Damn it!
Moving further along, a white fungus caught my eye and underneath the leaves of trees like the Blanket Leaf, Austral Mulberry and Silver Wattle turned white under my torch light.
As we near the carpark, two Australian Boobooks started calling to each other far away almost like an echo. Looking at the map, it seems they would have been deep in the forest far off track. Not to quell the spirt of adventure, but I’m sticking to the tracks on a night in an eerie and quiet forest.
I continued to scan the treetops for the last 200m hoping for something to show up. But, last we reached the empty carpark with nothing to put to our name. Oh well….. Until next time.