Some Australian Owls...

Renée did a bit of research on Australian owls for me. Apparently there are 10 native Australian owls, some of which are similar to British owls. Here are some pictures and information about some of my favourites...

The Australian Barn Owl

Famous for its ghostly beauty and silent flight, the Australian Barn Owl, which is smaller in stature than its northern hemisphere cousins, is a hunter of small terrestrial mammals up to the size of rats, and will take birds up to its own size under cover of darkness. Its calls vary from a breathy hiss to an unearthly shriek.

The Masked Owl Living in forest and bushland, the Masked Owl preys upon animals up to the size of possums and rabbits, and birds up to the size of magpies and kookaburras. Masked Owls are almost never found more than 300km inland. They are territorial, will mate for life and the female will usually lay two to three eggs in a tree hollow.

The Lesser Sooty Owl Considered by many to be one of the prettiest owls, the Lesser Sooty Owl inhabits the tropical mountain rainforests of north eastern Queensland.

I'd like to be a Lesser Sooty Owl I think, because I like their silvery colour and big eyes.

Sophie in Oz!

Well, Australia actually. I have landed in Perth, Western Australia where I am being looked after by a lovely lady called Rochelle, Renée's aunty. On Wednesday we are going for a walk in Kings Park with Stephen, Rochelle's eldest son, and her friend Jean who has a digital camera, so I should have some new photos to post then.

Western Australia is a pretty big place, and is the largest state in Australia (you can see it on the map above). It covers 2.5 million square kilometers (that's 10 times bigger than the UK!!) but a lot of it is desert. Only 2 million people live there (that's 30 times less than the UK!!) - so everyone could have a whole square kilometer of land each, and there'd still be room left over! They mostly live around the edges on the coastline, as there's not a lot of water for people, animals or plants to live in the middle bits.

It's pretty warm here too, about 30 degrees on average at the moment. Rochelle prefers the weather in the UK - she even likes Scotland in winter!

I'm looking forward to going for a walk in the park on Wednesday, and meeting some of Rochelle's collection of owls!