Oscar the Grouch

Oscar was brought to me as a little bundle of fluff with enormous eyes, and a huge mouth.  He was a baby tawny frogmouth, found in the middle of a paddock, on a tree trunk, no parents in sight, and no trees nearby for them to be hiding in.  Tawny frogmouths are similar to an owl in a lot of respects, but are not considered “raptors”.  They hunt at night, like owls, but they haven’t got the talons for catching large prey like owls do.  But they have a HUGE mouth, which is brightly coloured inside, so that it scares predators away when they open it wide…and wide it is!  And that’s what this little fellow was doing, trying so hard to scare predators away, when he was found.  He was so tiny, and his mouth and eyes seemed to be all that you could see.  So the lady picked up this little critter, objecting loudly, and wrapped him in a towel, then put him in a box, and brought him in to me.  Well he was still objecting while I opened the box.  I transferred him to a cat carrier, which was just the right size for him, and put things in there for him to sit on, and prepared some dog biscuits, by soaking them, till I was able to get him some more appropriate food.  He was no trouble to feed, as soon as someone went near him, the mouth would open wide, and so would the eyes, so I could just drop bits of food in, and eventually he would swallow.  I soon discovered that his very favourite food was liver, which I would cut into small bits, and he would eagerly swallow it.  I also discovered that I had to line his cage with towels etc, because he had rather liquid “poos” which he could aim rather well outside of his cage, if left unlined…..

I noticed that when he was asleep, even at a young age, he would adopt the “tree branch” pose.  In the wild, their best defense during the day is the fact that with their “camouflage” feathers, and the way they sit, they manage to look remarkably like a dead tree branch.  Many people have assumed they were looking at a branch, till the branch opened its eyes, and scared the daylights out of them.  This little bloke didn’t have anything approaching his camouflage feathers yet, but he instinctively knew that’s what a frogmouth should do.  And he did.  So in good weather, I would let him sit outside in one of the fruit trees, and practise…..

As he got older, he grew, and soon got too big for the cat carrier, and moved to bigger quarters.  They too had to be lined, as he was still free and easy in that department, and I would put him outside as often as I could get him out there.  My aviary wasn’t functional, so I couldn’t have him outside at night, because that was his active time, and who knows where he would end up!  He was moved yet again, and this time he was approaching adult size.  He was still a “juvenile”, but had grown his camouflage feathers, and lost all his baby down.  He still had his huge mouth and eyes, and he had TERRIBLE breath, but then eating raw liver and moths and bugs would do that….and he had learned to fly.  I had started leaving him out in the evenings, to encourage him to fly, but used to rush out to bring him back in before he escaped.  But of course one day, that’s exactly what he did…he escaped.  He flew over the fence, and when I went out to get him he was nowhere to be found.  I checked all the nearby trees, and he was conspicuous by his absence, and the next morning I checked them again.  Several days later a neighbour rang me telling me she had a young tawny frogmouth in her front yard imitating a tree stump.  It was a hot day, and he seemed heat stressed, so she hosed him, but she was concerned a cat would get him.  I went to investigate, and of course it was him.  He tried to scare me away, but I threw a towel over him, and bundled him up and took him home.  He was very hungry, and was very grateful for some liver, and other goodies.  I then expedited the arrangements for him to go somewhere where he could be taught to feed himself, and generally learn what he needed to succeed in the wild.  After a few days R & R, I took him out there.  We put him in the bottom of the aviary, and he took an instant dislike to his new carer, which I was rather pleased about, showed it wasn’t just me…. and after he had calmed down, he flew up to a branch and assumed his camouflage position.

I spoke to his new carer after a few weeks, and she informed me he was a willing learner when introduced to learning to hunt, and after a short time she was able to leave the aviary door open, and he took the hint and went!

So hopefully he has found a mate, and produced his own little “grouch”….or even “grouches”…..