Power couple
HUDDLED BESIDE our backyard fire on a moonless winter night, my wife, Marcelle, and I were lulled by sounds of growling possums, trickling water and crackling flames. “Did you hear that?” Marcelle asked as she sat up suddenly. “A high-pitched trilling, like a baby calling its mother.” We’d just moved into a new home on Sydney’s northern beaches and had no idea this strange noise was to become such a familiar and welcome part of our lives. Our cottage is one of the area’s original residences and, as we soon happily discovered, our backyard is shared territory with a menagerie of native wildlife.
It abuts a littoral rainforest patch through which a spring-fed creek flows before tumbling into a glittering waterfall. This gully of tall, spotted gums, spiky cabbage palms and towering tree ferns attracts birds and supports many small mammals and reptiles. The first night in the house I was woken at dawn by a cacophony of squawking birds. Opening the back door to investigate, I saw a male powerful owl) clutching a brushtail possum in a tree. As a squadron of birds harangued him like harpies, he shot me a glance, unfurled his wide wings and launched from his perch, the dead possum dangling from his huge talons.
