Tawny Frogmouths

It’s winter, but the promise of spring is in the air. The jonquils and daffodils are in flower. They are the first hint of the new season. This is when we hope our resident Tawny Frogmouths will start nesting in the forked branch of the old oak tree. 

With camera in hand, it’s only a few steps from the back door to catch them as the young bird emerges and grows to adulthood. The first thing we notice is the messy collection of sticks and other bits from the surrounding garden appearing on the fork of the tree.

The same two birds go to the same fork in the same tree each time, and for the rest of the year we rarely glimpse them.

But then they do. Soon after, we see parent birds beginning to sit. They share the task of incubating their precious eggs. By October we start to see the chicks. There are always either one or two chicks. Quite often they stare down at us while the parent is doing their best impersonation of a branch. We are privileged each year to witness this miraculous event. 

The process goes on till almost the end of the year until the chick is big enough and strong enough to fly off and not return. We just love it! It’s a highlight in our year. We are left with the haunting calls reverberating around our home at night. We love that too!

Believing that there is a creator seems quite easy when we get to see such stunning and beautiful evidence on our own doorstep.

It reminds us that creation is a wonderful witness to God’s existence. In the Bible book of Job, it is written, “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you… that the hand of the LORD has done this.” Job 12:7&9 (NIV)