The following information is from Birds In Back Yards Web site.
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/Powerful-Owl-Project-0
The Powerful Owl Project in 2012 has taken on an expanded form from the pilot program in 2011 with the appointment of Dr David Bain as the Powerful Owl Project Officer. Funding has been secured from the NSW Environmental Trust and the BASNA Twitchathon to run the project for the next 2 years.
The project will expand to encompass the Sydney Basin area from Newcastle in the north to Kiama in the south and out to the Blue Mountains. Similarly to last year, the project will search for and monitor nesting sites in the 2012 and 2103 seasons to help understand the extent of the population within the urban area and monitor breeding success, site fidelity and habitat requirements. In addition, the project will also focus on the development of education materials with partners such as Taronga Zoo and engage various land managers to workshop management measures to help in the conservation of Powerful Owls and their habitat.
From the fantastic support received from volunteer Owl Observers in 2011 and work of Birds In Backyards, the project has a firm base from which to develop from. Regular project updates will be provided on the website. The results from the 2011 pilot program follow.
Over 50 Owl Observer volunteers went out in search of Powerful Owl breeding territories throughout Sydney and the Blue Mountains. These wonderful volunteers located owls in 15 territories that bred and fledged at least one, usually two, chicks. Owls in a further five territories were recorded as nesting but the outcome of these nesting events is unknown. Another two pairs apparently abandoned their nesting attempt, for unknown reasons and six pairs were located by Owl Observers but breeding was not observed. The exact location of the nest tree has yet to be determined for several of these pairs.
Over 250 reported sightings also came in from the general public for 2011 and from previous seasons, unveiling even more potential Powerful Owl territories. When we look at this information about the locations of owl territories in which breeding has been recorded (e.g. chicks sighted), but not exclude 2011 observations, revealed that there could be an additional 25 breeding pairs in the Sydney region. These pre-2011 records span a period of 22 years and so it is not known if all of these territories are currently occupied. These numbers are certainly much larger than the previous estimates made by Kavanagh (2004) of 20-30 pairs in the Sydney basin.
All but six of the 2011 territories were located in the northern, and north-western, half of the Sydney region (i.e. north of the Great Western Highway). While there are a number of additional Powerful Owl records occurring south of this “line”, their status (i.e. breeding pairs?) is unknown.
Owl Observers (and members of the public) also made records of Powerful Owls with prey items and undertaking unusual behaviour. Ringtail possums were the favourite prey item but other birds and flying foxes were also sometimes observed. Interestingly one breeding pair were observed at the end of the breeding season with their own owlets and with the two owlets from a neighbouring territory also close by (whilst their parents remained in their own territory). Just how and why the neighbouring owlets ventured into another territory is unknown, but it is something we haven’t seen before.
In summary, we now know that there is likely to be more than the 20-30 pairs/territories of Powerful Owls estimated by Kavanagh (2004) to occur in the Sydney region. Instead, there could be more than 50 pairs/territories. Many of these “forested” territories include substantial areas of urban encroachment where the owls are subject to numerous human-induced threats. We hope that as this project develops, we will begin to understand this population within the urban matrix and develop further understanding to help in the conservation of this species more widely.
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