Meryl Eddie “Growing up on a farm in the South Burnett area and at the tender age of twelve I started my own business – a Poll Hereford cattle stud. When registering my stud I had to decide on a prefix. Most nights after the radio and T.V. were turned off, and you were lying there listening to the sounds around you, I would hear this double note of ‘boo-book’ chiming through the night air. The sound belongs to one of the smallest and more common owls found across Australia – a Southern Boobook or scientifically known as Ninox novaeseelandiae.”
The name Boobook resonated well with all these ventures and consequently we decided to trade mark and use it across these independent entities.
I liked this word “boobook” and used it for my stud. Who would have known then that later on in life I would have grown up, married “a nice fellow according to my husband”, bought some farming land, started and continue to run an ecological consulting business and ecotourism business.
About the Southern Boobook Owl
While there can be considerable individual and geographic colour variation, in the Roma area, the southern Boobook is generally dark chocolate-brown with spots and streaks of white grey. Underneath they generally display more of a rufous-brown colour, still with the spots of white grey. Their facial disc is paler than their head feathers and like many owls it has large dark patches behind each eye, while their throat is whitish.
They can be found in a variety of habitats including woodlands, creeks, open plains and urban areas.Their size ranges from 27 to 36cm long. Females are often larger than the males.
Being nocturnal they feed mostly at night on insects, small mammals such as mice and bats and other smallish animals like geckoes and frogs.Often nesting in tree hollows they generally breed around August September, however have been known to breed up until February, spending around 42 days incubating their eggs.
Come and explore the wonderful Roma and Injune townships and the surrounding Maranoa and Central Highlands regions with people who live there, people with a wealth of knowledge, on one of our ecotours.