![]() My night-time gloom lifts when I catch up with them, because I can see they both have an infectious enthusiasm for their quarry, and together they make quite a team – one we are so fortunate to have batting in the morepork owls’ corner. It was this experience that saw Nick being invited to work with Flossy. ![]() Nick studied Environmental Science, Wildlife and Conservation Biology for his first degree, with an Honours project involving attaching GPS transmitters to the Powerful owl in Melbourne. She completed her first degree in Advanced Science Research, with a year in Honours, majoring in Ecology, Conservation Biology and Zoology and is on-island researching the morepork owl with Nick Bradsworth, also a PhD candidate, and a specialist in owls from Deakin University in Victoria, Australia. Flossy Sperring is a PhD candidate from Monash University. The next morning, spurred on by thoughts of the loneliest morepork and to learn more about what is being done to try and save this bird from extinction, I contact Flossy and Nick. The exact number is still open for debate, but one thing is for certain, there aren’t many of them. We live on Norfolk Island – a tiny rock just 5 km by 8 km in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean and home to the Pitcairn descendants of Fletcher Christian and the other HMAV Bounty mutineers along with their Tahitian brides – and this morepork owl is just one of maybe 20 or 30 birds of this kind left in the world. I shift, feeling uncomfortable at the sound of his unyielding resolve. But from the sanctuary of my bed, the sadness of his plight, especially as I listen to him calling out for a partner to share his life’s journey, achingly hits home. ![]() With its all-seeing, all-knowing owl eyes, this bird is one of the rarest in the world, and I feel a little bit privileged to be sharing my night with him.
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