Kids find rare Powerful Owl at Common

Members of the program called, 'Wild Ones', discovered the owl on Friday, February 23 while sitting in the shade along Common Creek.

Wild Ones is a program where kids meet at the Dungog Common every Friday in order to explore, learn and connect with each other in the outdoors.

"As we all came back together there was an exclamation of 'wow', followed by another 'wow' as another wild one spotted it, followed by 'I think it's an owl. A really big owl'," Wild Ones facilitator Nikki Brown said.

The Powerful Owl is a threatened species in the Biodiversity Conservation Act, listed as vulnerable in NSW. Dungog based ecologist Bill Dowling said that the owl stands at around 60 cm tall and is the largest owl in Australia.

Two days following the sighting, one of the participants in Wild Ones, eight-year-old Ada Brown took Mr Dowling to where she had found the owl roosting. "It made my month," Mr Dowling said.

Mr Dowling also said that it was a credit to Ada being able to again find the location of the owls' roost on her own.

"Powerful Owls are a shy bird that generally fly away silently before anyone comes too close, so well done to Wild Ones for being so quiet," he said.

"The owl roosts during the day in tall forest trees that give them a commanding view of their surroundings and they nest in large tree hollows 15 metres above the ground. Here is hoping that there is a suitable tree at the Common."

"This is definitely their biggest discovery since starting Wild Ones back in 2022," said Ms Brown.

"We already know the Common is a special place and this sighting alone gives further credit to the high conservation value of the Dungog Common."

The find is just another endangered species that is located in the Common.

Mr Dowling has previously highlighted a number of endangered species in the Common including koalas and squirrel gliders and plants such as white flowered wax plants.