astroearth  

I have lived in the rural areas of Australia for years but living in the suburbs is not so bad.

I do miss the wild life and the wide open spaces but every now and then I get rewarded by seeing something special. Living just west of Brisbane the birds are just fantastic, I mean the feathered variety.

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Normally I write about astronomical topics. Sometimes one need to step back and take a break, it is nice to just sit back and “smell the roses” and enjoy nature.

The area where I live has many trees and so far the developers have stayed away.  The mornings usually brings an assortment of bird life form colourful parrots, magpies and Tawny frogmouths.

I was fortunate to have my camera handy the other day being a rather overcast and chilly day here in Queensland I happened to catch a glimpse of two Tawny frogmouth’s perched on a tree near the house.

At first I thought they were twigs but after listening to the calls and approaching slowly I could just make them out. The light was fading and I had a flash attached took several pictures. You can make out the shape of the birds. The red eye colour is the birds’ retina. Tawny frogmouths have yellow eyes.

Tawny Frogmouths are often confused with owls, but is not an owl there are 14 species.

They sit very still and look like part of a tree, their camouflage is exceptional and are often difficult to see because they remain very still. Frogmouths are commonly seen throughout Australia they prefer open woodland areas. Tawny frogmouths hunt at night and spend the day roosting on a dead log or tree branch close to the tree trunk.

Tawny frogmouth pairs stay together for life or until one of the pair dies. Males and females look alike, and are 35-50 cm in length.©