Note: New venue – see below! DRB Presents: Boyd Wykes from Owl Friendly Margaret River speaking about Night Calling: how Yornitj the Masked Owl inspired Australia’s first ‘owl friendly’ community

Our usual venue of the Kalamunda Community Centre is undergoing renovations so this event has been moved for the December meeting to: ZigZag Seminar Room behind Café Mason and Bird (formerly ZigZag Café), 50 Railway Road, Kalamunda

Note: no RSVP required.

COVID19: Even though restrictions have eased, we will still encourage members and visitors to take precautions and please do not attend if unwell.

Speaker:

Boyd Wykes

Topic:

Night Calling: how Yornitj the Masked Owl inspired Australia’s first ‘owl friendly’ community

When award-winning film maker Sue Taylor and husband Bob built a retirement home in Augusta, they reconnected with well-known local ornithologist Boyd Wykes and offered their assistance with an Owl Friendly campaign he and colleagues had established to alert their community to poisoning of wildlife from widespread use of ‘one-dose kills’ rodent baits.

Two years later, the resulting film, Night Calling captures the heart breaking and heart-warming highs and lows of Boyd’s nocturnal dedication to researching a previously little known local population of the enigmatic Masked Owl.  Together with equal dedication by the Owl Friendly group to educate our community about ways to control rodents without harm to owls and many other wildlife.

The Owl Friendly campaign, embraced by the Augusta-Margaret River Shire as a declared Owl Friendly local government, has inspired communities and local governments around Australia to follow suit. The campaign has received key support from the Margaret River Busselton Tourism Association’s Capes Foundation since the Capes Raptor Centre (formerly Eagles Heritage) was folded under its wing.

Plus:

• Kids’ talk – one of your younger members will be giving a 5 minutes kids’ talk.
• Boffins talk – A member will give an 8 minutes Boffins’ talk.
• “Nature road show”. Members and visitors are encouraged to bring items to place on the display table or to send photographs to the MC in advance, e.g. a sample flower, an insect, and so on – anything of natural history interest that has legally been obtained. If we have time, one of our experts will identify them or briefly talk about them, or the person bringing them can talk about where they saw it, etc. Photographs are particularly welcome, as everyone can see them. If you wish to show a photograph please email it, no later than the Wednesday before the meeting, to our MC for this night, and she/he will include it on her PowerPoint slides. We have a dedicated email for this purpose” natclub@webco.com.au
• Thing of the month / Things coming up next month: These two presentations are about things in nature happening this month and things coming up, so if you have any photos or information, send them to: natclub@webco.com.au
• Door prizes: You could also be the lucky winner of a door prize. We make sure there are prizes for both members and visitors.
• Raffle: We will have a great raffle  – please raid your piggy bank for a bit more cash, $5 for 3 tickets.

Time: Please come at 7.15pm or earlier if you wish, for a 7.30pm start as we start promptly. We are open from 6.45pm. We finish formal proceedings no later than 9.30pm.

Donation: All this for only a donation of $3 per person for adult members ($0 for child members), and $5 per adult visitor and $1 per visiting child to help with the costs of running the club, venue hire, insurance and so on.  Please bring the right CASH to help us avoid long queues. Thanks. We do not have EFTPOS facilities yet.

Entrance: It is a condition of entry that everyone signs in on arrival, thank you.

Parking: Free parking right outside.

Wheelchair access: Everything is on one level.

Toilets: Are inside.

Bookings: No bookings required.

See you there for fabulous night.