For those of you who have been following since October last year, you'll understand just how amazing we feel right now. For those who are new, some context.
We had the most gorgeous Tawny Frogmouth, Tony, who spent a lot of time in our backyard, snoozing in a couple of different trees, giving us death stares as we hung out the washing or when the dogs woke him up by running around, noisily kicking up the mulch. As dusk fell one day, I was lucky enough to watch as his piercing yellow eyes grew from their usual wide state to absolutely massive as he heard another Tawny calling from across the road, a Tawny that we would call Toni and watched as he took flight and headed towards her.
They built a nest directly opposite our driveway and we waited with baited breath to meet their little one/s. Finally, after about a month we caught of glimpse of the snow white ball of fluff as it popped out every now and then from beneath Tony who was diligently protecting his hatchling. The entire street was buzzing. And then overnight, literally overnight, the nest was empty.
We found the chick, cold and dead on the ground, a fair distance from the tree that the nest was in and then later that day, feathers and part of the beak of who we think was our beautiful Tony. Absolute devastation. Toni called for her mate and chick all that day and all that night and then disappeared. I cried and cried and cried.
So you can imagine just how damn happy we were when during one of many wee breaks a few nights ago, we heard the rhythmic "oom, oom, oom" call of a Tawny. Whether this is Toni or Tony or someone new all together it has just been the absolute best to hear that call again. And because I'm the luckiest girl in the world, a day or so ago, I was able to follow the call and find Mr or Mrs handsome in one of the trees a few houses up and then early last night found them again but this time back in our yard, ready to head off into the night!
Tawny Frogmouth
Northern Illawarra
