LeAnn and Tom:
>One more comment about the owl- as it was getting pretty
>dark outside we aren't 100% sure about the great horned
>owl ID (although it seems the best fit from what we could
>see) but I wondered about a vocalization it made. When we
>ventured off of the porch to get a better look at it, it
>turned towards us and made a sound like "erach!"- a rising,
>loud, screeching type sound.

Sure could be. They make all sorts of strange sounds, as do
other many other owl species. I've heard great-horned chicks
make a contact call that sounds exactly like a tent zipper
being opened very quickly. I heard this up in the Goshutes
where I band hawks, and as I was sleeping in my tent, surrounded
by about twenty other tents, I first wondered why someone
had brought an amplifier up to broadcast the sound of them
opening their tent, repeatedly! Didn't know for sure what
owl species it was at the time (we've had barred up there,
amazingly) but one curious dude got up one night and tracked
the chicks down - they were in camp. That was actually a fun
year as one of the adults used the snag overhanging my tent
almost every night, waking me up with the more traditional
"hooting" call.

Spotted and barred owls also make contact calls with a rising
inflection, but - dare I say this? - a bit more melodious, more
like a "eeeee-yip!" kind of thing. I've heard great grey chicks
make a similar contact call. I've also seen a great grey owl
mom do a killdeer-like wing-flopping distraction display on
the ground from about five feet away (I was with "her biologist",
standing under her chick which was perched about two feet overhead).
During the display mom made a most amazing array of sounds.


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>