Tawny Frogmouth

There hasn't been the racket from the Rainbow Lorikeets in the backyard lately.  Perhaps it is because all the apples are gone - and the plums.  We actually got quite a few of the ripened plums.
But there have been some ruckuses out the back the last few nights that have mightily interested our dog.

Today (happy Australia Day) a visitor wondered why we had put one of those pretend owls so high up in our tree.  What was she talking about?  Our pretend owls are on the ground near the strawberries and fruit trees (there are still nectarines ripening).

Turns out there was a REAL owl in the tree.  A tawny frogmouth.  (Later correction, apparently it isn't an owl, it's a nightjar and is not raptorial.)

My camera took fairly ordinary photos, I haven't mastered (mistressed?) the zoom yet.  But we all got our cameras out and these are this is the product of a camera with an attachable zoom lens (below).

This is all fairly exciting to have in a suburban backyard. It might be a worry for the ringtail possums though. We haven't seen any of the brushtail possums for quite a while.