Second week of August - Tawny Frogmouth

My night was free, and nothing appealed more than going spotlighting for the first time at the lake. I started in the eastern carpark, the local nighttime taxi driver hang out when they have nowhere else to be.

With my LED LENSER lighting up the park like the lights at the MCG, I set forth through the swamp paperbark and flooded gum forests

View across the lake from the northern carpark

It took only 12 minutes, but I came across my first night bird at the lake, a Tawny Frogmouth perched on a branch above a semi-flooded forest floor.

A Tawny Frogmouth hunting from the swamp paperbarks

Apart from some calling Purple Swamphens, Musk Ducks, Australian Shelducks, Pacific Black Ducks and Willie Wagtails, the rest of the night was quiet.

No owls this time, maybe they are hiding out in the river red gum parkland in the south-east corner of the lake. Stay tuned.