The Barking Owl

Would you like to come out with us tonight and watch some science films? I asked Pliny the Elder this afternoon.

Science films! said Pliny. Normally I would say yes, but I am setting off this evening to do some bird spotting.

In this weather? Pliny that is the height of recklessness. What sort of birds are you going to spot?

I have been thinking about the birds that have supposedly disappeared from the Mount Lofty Ranges, said Pliny.

Supposedly! I thought you believed that they had.

I didn't exactly say that.

True, you didn't. But surely you're not going up to the hills!

I am, said Pliny firmly. I am going to look for the Barking Owl. It is a most interesting bird which is difficult to spot, but easy to identify by its call. It barks like a dog, and some times it screams like a woman or a child. It seems the Aboriginal people used to tell the early settlers the sound was made by a bunyip.

Well, be sure you've seen one, I said, and not just heard one. Because there are a lot of dogs in the hills. And screaming women and children too, I added.

Pliny looked at me sceptically.

You are trying to dissuade me from going, he said, but you won't succeed. I shall rug up warm, wear a waterproof raincoat and carry an umbrella. I shall pack some sandwiches, a banana and a thermos of tea. And I shall take a camera. That reminds me, may I borrow yours?

I don't know, Pliny. What if you drop it in the mud?

But think, said Pliny, if it helps to identify a Barking Owl, what a contribution to the Woodlands Recovery Initiative that would be!

I think they would rather have money, I said, but alright, you can borrow the camera.