From my kitchen window, I spotted an unusual blob in one of the casuarinas in the yard. We’d had a windy night, so it could be a broken-off branch.
In fact it was both. The Tawny Frogmouth had wedged itself behind a broken limb, and was there for two days.
Then it appeared in the slimmer neighbouring tree, actually the tree where the ‘nest’ had been in 2017, from which two babies had hatched, to my great delight. The prodigal returns?
Next morning it had moved to a fork in the same tree, but seemed much fatter. Fluffed up to keep warm?
From the front, I was not sure if it was one or two birds. It looked very broad; was it pregnant, returning home to lay those eggs? But if so, where was the nest or stick platform? Inadequate as that had seemed, it had served its purpose, but had long since broken up.
As the sun warmed the yard, it moved from the fork and perched on a broken branch. Definitely one bird. And definitely fat.
I’ll be keeping a close eye on any stick activity in that home tree.