This is Screech.
For the last couple of months we've had a very diligent Tawny Frogmouth pair sitting on their nest close to the house. We've watched with anticipation and were finally rewarded by seeing a little bundle of fluff popping his head out of the nest.
Then last weekend - DRAMA - I walked outside to see a massive monitor making his way towards the Tawny tree. Screamed at hubby to come and help, we tried to avert disaster, but the monitor was way too fast for us and scaled the tree.
Mumma Tawny was very panicked, as the monitor came closer to the nest she flew off into a nearby tree. She gave me a look of absolute desperation HELP ME! (yes, she did!) but the nest/monitor were way too high for us to do anything. Hubby tried to throw things at the monitor, but I stopped him as the monitor's life is no less precious than the chicks - I didn't want to see the monitor get toppled out of the tree and hurt or killed. Plus hubby damn near hit my car with a rock. ;\
I put some eggs around the base of the tree so the monitor could see them, in a vain attempt to lure him away from the chick. We had to go out briefly, so wished the Tawnys good luck. Alas, when we came back, the nest was empty :_|
Went about our afternoon chores when suddenly I spotted baby Tawny! Sitting on the ground next to the tractor. We dropped everything, made him a makeshift nest and put it up in the tree, then caught him and put him in the nest. We saw Mumma and Pappa Tawny watching nearby.
Cut down a long story, Bubba kept jumping out of his nest over the next three days and Mumma and Pappa abandoned him, so the decision was made to bring him inside to keep him safe from both the monitors and our dogs. (our four young ones would kill him).
He will be released as soon as he can fly properly and learn to catch his own bugs (I am catching them for him at the moment). He's all puffed up and hating me in the photo, that's a good thing, we don't want him imprinting on us. He's feeding really well though (I hate you, I hate you, yum, yum, more please, I still hate you).
Everything is fine here Monsters, it's just everything happening at once, the house is like Grand Central; filled with music stands, instruments, musicians wandering in and out ... you name it .... :-x
Hope the little calf makes it through the night; thinking of you and yours tonight xx
I have been browsing through various discussion topics on here over the past few days and would like to say what a wonderfully refreshing topic this is, a definite one for giving warm and fuzzy feelings to those who read it.
monstersinthedungeon you are a veritable Dr Dolittle with a wonderful caring nature to Gods creatures. This discussion thread is like a little sanctuary for those trying to escape the numerous political discussions and some discussions which are almost like battlegrounds with feuding going on between various sanctions, almost like 2 groups of teenagers in the high school playground.
Deepest sympathy to you on the loss of your 2 dogs. You are obviously a person who deeply cares for all the animals on their property. Screech is absolutely delightful, what a character he is growing to be.
I too love animals, but we only have one cat in our household and Midas rules the roost here.
Again, thank you for providing such a lovely little discussion here, one I have enjoyed spending time reading over the past couple of days.
Here is the calf being chauffeur-driven from the calf-pen to the lounge:
And not to be outdone, Charlie decided HE wanted a chauffeur-driven wheelbarrow ride too! (he got into the barrow by himself, when I turned around, there he was):
