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Nature is a Spectator Sport

Jacob Sife

I have spent many days and nights looking for animals. Sometimes when I find them, I neglect to take the opportunity to slow down and observe them, but when I do take the time, it has often had a huge impact.

Few wildlife interactions have required me to slow down and observe the way that waiting at a powerful owl nest for the ‘handover’ did. Hiding out during the night in a clumsily constructed bird hide, more accurately described as a sheet, armed only with a camera (actually a photographer)...waiting.

When a female Powerful Owl silently swooped in holding the fresh headless body of a common ring-tail possum and delivered it to an owlet that’s presence was only known from the unmistakable trill from the tree hollow above. I remember feeling like I just witnessed something incredible, and I was the only person to have witnessed it. Oh, and the photographer.

Powerful owls are declining, as a result they are listed as vulnerable to extinction. However, we are seeing this big predator more commonly in urban areas. This nesting hollow was located in a bushland reserve only a few minutes walk from the nearest houses. The possum may well have been caught in the garden of one of these houses.