Does anyone have any hints for finding our nocturnal feathered friends? This would be greatly appreciated.
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You could search the birding-aus archives for a start (look for birding-aus via google).
Another, and I think a fundamental method, would be to read up about the species you want to find and look for habitats in which they're most commonly found according to literature. Learn some (or all) of the calls they may make as at night it can be the difference knowing what you'd just heard and then maybe try to track it down if the bird keeps calling. Some things to be wary of are nesting periods for some species. Eg Powerful Owl, which can be extremely sensitive to any disturbance, thus may totally abandon nesting. So it's also a question of what you want to do for the sake of ticking off a bird for your own enjoyment. Hence why I would suggest digesting a lot of information about your target species before walking about aimlessly trying to find everything that inhabits a patch of woodland. If you are not at all serious, but just want to go and see what's about every now and then, maybe see if the local National Parks Rangers have a spotlighting program. Good luck. :)
My local cemetery is an ideal night birding haunt (heaps of trees and bush), just sit quietly and the resident Powerful Owl usually makes an appearance around 2000 hours, later from around 2200 an assortment of possums are sure to entertain. During summer male Common Koels often provide sound effects. At the other end of the cemetery is a giant fig, dozens of Flying Foxes dart in and out of this one. And no, haven't had any "ghost" experiences to date!