Before a big storm strikes in North Queensland, Australia, Julie-Anne O'Neill says the air outside begins to teem with life.

"Everything goes ballistic. It's like a feeding and mating frenzy," she says.

In 2011, O'Neill was taking a late evening walk on one such night. She was carrying a large flashlight called a dolphin torch with which she hoped to observe how the local wildlife reacted to the coming storm.

It was on this walk that she took the photo that she would later call the crown jewel of her collection of nature images. She heard her subject it before she saw it: a loud screeching that seemed familiar and yet foreign at the same time.

On the ground in front of