Again from New Mexico:

Thanks for the responses to our cat and owl question!
My mom is torn between being extremely upset at the
thought of an owl eating her cats and relieved that it
wasn't a demented cat-hating neighbor that killed them.

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. It did this several
times while we were out there. I couldn't find this
vocalization in the field guide- it just mentions the 'hoo'
sound. Any thoughts on the matter? Is this a GHOW sound?
It was enough to make us back away and go inside! While I
know it couldn't swallow me whole, I still wouldn't want
to tangle with an owl that big! :)

Our vacation continues to be fruitful bird-wise. Today we
added about 4 new life birds (phainopepla, white-breasted
nuthatch, pyrrhuloxia, and verdin). Birding along the Rio
Grande we saw a young bald eagle feeding in a tree and had
hundreds of sandhill cranes circling overhead making their
loud bugling calls. We've had just about every species of
duck I could imagine in the Rio here- even escaped mute
swans! Hope Seattle is drying out some!

LeAnn Copas and Tom Moore
usually of Redmond, WA
tommoore1 at attmail.com