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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺

@doktrnick.bsky.social

5.3K followers 1K following 1.3K posts

Owlcaholic; Bird photography and drawing; Owl Club; Powerful Owl Project; Bird banding; also biomaths, machine learning, bio-imaging; Brisbane, Australia

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · Nov 13

Young Powerful Owlet falls asleep while intently watching some ducks. This is my favourite Owlet movie ever. We always finish our Powerful Owl talks with it zzzzzzzz
#birds #brisbane

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 3h

This is the voting link. But be sure and vote 1 Powerful Owls every day as the bottom 5 are eliminated and counting resets to 0 every night.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Australian bird of the year 2025: vote for your favourite #birdoftheyear in the Guardian / BirdLife Australia poll

From little penguins to (very big) cassowaries, every bird has its fans. Vote for your favourite in the 2025 Guardian/BirdLife Australia poll

www.theguardian.com

Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 3h

You'll need to ask Sean Dooley about the choice of birds.

This is the link, but save your vote for tomorrow when the counting will have reset and the bottom 5 eliminated.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Australian bird of the year 2025: vote for your favourite #birdoftheyear in the Guardian / BirdLife Australia poll

From little penguins to (very big) cassowaries, every bird has its fans. Vote for your favourite in the 2025 Guardian/BirdLife Australia poll

www.theguardian.com

Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 3h

I'm sorry for your loss of the cassowary, a magnificent bird. But I'm happy you're coming over to team Powerful Owl.

Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 4h

The Powerful Owl is still hanging on there in the Bird of the Year voting, and should make the cut later tonight when the bottom 5 are removed, and the counts are reset to 0. Hopefully those currently voting for the Brush Turkey etc will move their support to POwls 🙂

Powerful Owlet and female Powerful Owl looking at each other quizzically.

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 4h

Cheers, Liv!

Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 11h

Yes, we do wonder if they think it might be a bird of prey in flight. We guess they learn it's not a threat & so ignore it. The POwls we monitor get the same about us ... initially they may be concerned, but after a while they learn we wont bother them ... they'll give is a quick look & fall asleep.

Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 12h

An airplane went over, which seemed to rattle the Powerful Owl pair a bit. That's unusual as adult POwls mostly ignore them, and this pair being in quite a people-busy conservation area are very very chill. Owlets are always fascinated by planes.
#brisbane #birds #wildoz

Closeup of female Powerful Owl staring up at the sky

Close up of male Powerful Owl looking worried.

Female and male Powerful Owls looking agitated while roosting on a branch together.

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 12h

Powerful Owls need more votes! Quick, vote for them here:
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 13h

Powerful Owl pair (female left) in a Brisbane conservation park this morning. Don't forget to put in your vote today for Powerful Owls for Bird of the Year:
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Male and female (L) Powerful Owl roosting about a metre apart on a branch.

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 1d

I wonder if they weight there training data by how much a site is visited?
www.tylervigen.com/spurious-cor...

Spurious Correlations

Correlation is not causation: thousands of charts of real data showing actual correlations between ridiculous variables.

www.tylervigen.com

Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 2d

Current polling this morning in the Bird of the Year.

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 2d

What's with the Tawny Frogmouth vote (see reply below) at @australia.theguardian.com ??? It's not even an Owl!
The Powerful Owlets are concerned. Vote 1 Powerful Owl! Cast your vote here:
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 3d

That is hilarious! 😂

Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 3d

The Powerful Owlets appreciate your support.

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 3d

Channel-bills are last in the voting currently! It looks like your wish will be granted.

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 3d

Spotted Pardalote is popular so far, 8th in voting so far ...

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 3d

Got my Bird of the Year web scraping code running again ... it looks like the Powerful Owl should survive today's vote as it's 15th in the tally. Phew!

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 3d

Yeah, well, they've used a particularly cute Frogmouth chick pic. It hardly seems fair.

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 3d

I've let them use my photos before for free when they've done stuff on Powerful Owls. They've got my number 🙂

Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 3d

😂

Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 3d

It's time to vote for Australia's best bird! Vote 1 Powerful Owl!
[ @australia.theguardian.com seems to have chosen a particularly unflattering POwl picture, so here's a better one]

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 8d

I had one a few years ago that stayed for a whole year, not migrating back north like it was meant to. Fortunately for me it was a few streets away so I still got to sleep at night. But I feel your pain.

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 9d

But then the Owlet went to sleep again. After sunset it woke up properly and was trilling a lot.

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 9d

The Powerful Owlet woke up briefly.

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Dr Nick 🦉🇦🇺 @doktrnick.bsky.social · 9d

Sleeping Powerful Owlet in a suburban Brisbane park at dusk yesterday.
#brisbane #birds #wildoz

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