Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺
@doktrnick.bsky.social
Owlcaholic; Bird photography and drawing; Owl Club; Powerful Owl Project; Bird banding; also biomaths, machine learning, bio-imaging; Brisbane, Australia
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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺
@doktrnick.bsky.social
· Nov 13
Female Powerful Owl in a Brisbane conservation area* this morning.
* Incidentally, an area that the government seems very interested in developing into a "major tourist attraction" in time for the 2032 Olympic Games. Something nobody wants except developers, as far as I can tell.
#brisbane #wildoz
* Incidentally, an area that the government seems very interested in developing into a "major tourist attraction" in time for the 2032 Olympic Games. Something nobody wants except developers, as far as I can tell.
#brisbane #wildoz
January 6, 2026 at 1:47 AM
Bloody hell! Just after sunset we saw a male Powerful Owl in a nest hollow, purring inside for several minutes, as the female looked on calling 20m away! Usually POwl don't investigate hollows until late March/April, so this is massively early.
[photo: same male POwl investigating the hollow 5/5/22]
[photo: same male POwl investigating the hollow 5/5/22]
January 2, 2026 at 10:39 AM
Bloody hell! Just after sunset we saw a male Powerful Owl in a nest hollow, purring inside for several minutes, as the female looked on calling 20m away! Usually POwl don't investigate hollows until late March/April, so this is massively early.
[photo: same male POwl investigating the hollow 5/5/22]
[photo: same male POwl investigating the hollow 5/5/22]
January 1, 2026 at 9:56 PM
Powerful Owlet roosting with a parent in a Brisbane park. This was the one found last week, & I wanted to check if it had a sibling. But at dusk there wasn't trilling except from this one, so it looks like a singleton. It was fun watching it playing and flying after sunset.
#brisbane #birds #wildoz
#brisbane #birds #wildoz
December 26, 2025 at 11:30 PM
December 24, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Brilliant! After 1.5 hours of stamping around in the Brisbane sauna today, deciding there were no owls, trying to take a short cut back to the car ... that looks like a great nest hollow ... that tree looks nice for roosting ... that looks like scat! ... (looks up) f**k me there's a Powerful Owlet!
December 22, 2025 at 2:45 AM
Brilliant! After 1.5 hours of stamping around in the Brisbane sauna today, deciding there were no owls, trying to take a short cut back to the car ... that looks like a great nest hollow ... that tree looks nice for roosting ... that looks like scat! ... (looks up) f**k me there's a Powerful Owlet!
A very calm roo that was having its dinner as I was looking for owls.
December 19, 2025 at 11:21 PM
A very calm roo that was having its dinner as I was looking for owls.
Owl Detecting is not for the fainthearted.
December 19, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Owl Detecting is not for the fainthearted.
Since there was a question about how we find Powerful Owls, here's something @lucyparkerpaul.bsky.social and I wrote on Owl Detecting for Wildlife Australia magazine a couple of years ago. #wildoz
December 19, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Since there was a question about how we find Powerful Owls, here's something @lucyparkerpaul.bsky.social and I wrote on Owl Detecting for Wildlife Australia magazine a couple of years ago. #wildoz
Two young Boobook Owlets seen while looking for Powerful Owls yesterday. They were low in a tree right next to a path next to a row of houses, a crazy location given there was a lovely creek with lots of secluded trees right behind them. Owlets often make poor roost choices.
#brisbane #birds #wildoz
#brisbane #birds #wildoz
December 18, 2025 at 10:21 PM
There is still time to register for the Open Ecoacoustics & Powerful Owl projects webinar in a bit over an hour. @lucyparkerpaul.bsky.social and I will be in the chat channel to answer all your Powerful Owl and project questions.
www.eventbrite.com.au/e/open-ecoac...
www.eventbrite.com.au/e/open-ecoac...
Open Ecoacoustics & Powerful Owl projects webinar
Come learn about BirdLife's Powerful Owl project, what they have learned and how Open Ecoacoustics enables you to help owls from home.
www.eventbrite.com.au
December 17, 2025 at 11:55 PM
There is still time to register for the Open Ecoacoustics & Powerful Owl projects webinar in a bit over an hour. @lucyparkerpaul.bsky.social and I will be in the chat channel to answer all your Powerful Owl and project questions.
www.eventbrite.com.au/e/open-ecoac...
www.eventbrite.com.au/e/open-ecoac...
A beautiful documentary on tracking down and monitoring a family of Masked Owls in SW Western Australian that @cnzdenek.bsky.social drew my attention to. I recognise so much in it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=maeB...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=maeB...
Night Calling
YouTube video by Owl Friendly Margaret River
www.youtube.com
December 15, 2025 at 11:13 PM
A beautiful documentary on tracking down and monitoring a family of Masked Owls in SW Western Australian that @cnzdenek.bsky.social drew my attention to. I recognise so much in it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=maeB...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=maeB...
December 10, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Some quick Powerful Owl sketch experiments. Every drawing is practice for the next.
December 9, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Some quick Powerful Owl sketch experiments. Every drawing is practice for the next.
Powerful Owlet at dusk. A couple of months ago, a poorly adult POwl was found about 2-3 km away, & there was concern it might be this one's parent. Fortunately, last night one adult was about 30m away, another about 350m away, & this ones sibling was trilling and flying around with it after sunset.
December 7, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Powerful Owlet at dusk. A couple of months ago, a poorly adult POwl was found about 2-3 km away, & there was concern it might be this one's parent. Fortunately, last night one adult was about 30m away, another about 350m away, & this ones sibling was trilling and flying around with it after sunset.
At bird banding there was a Boobook near our measuring table. It was almost aggressive in how uninterested in us it was. It had a floofy Owlet with it so perhaps it had been rushing around all night to feed it and was very tired. Getting up at 3am I could empathise, though the dawn light was lovely.
December 7, 2025 at 9:10 PM
At bird banding there was a Boobook near our measuring table. It was almost aggressive in how uninterested in us it was. It had a floofy Owlet with it so perhaps it had been rushing around all night to feed it and was very tired. Getting up at 3am I could empathise, though the dawn light was lovely.
We think this Powerful Owlet may be female as its face mask feathers extend beyond the edge of its face, and there was a paper a few years back that said female juveniles could be distinguished from males this way.
December 5, 2025 at 4:05 AM
We think this Powerful Owlet may be female as its face mask feathers extend beyond the edge of its face, and there was a paper a few years back that said female juveniles could be distinguished from males this way.
Powerful Owlet in a Brisbane park this morning. This is either the Owlet or its sibling that I rescued off the road when it 1st came out of the hollow in August. It looks to be well, and its chevon patterning has now fully grown in, though it still has floof around its face.
#brisbane #birds #wildoz
#brisbane #birds #wildoz
December 5, 2025 at 3:39 AM
November 27, 2025 at 4:11 AM