That is a truly odd report. Humans can hear higher frequencies than birds
(e.g. young human's upper limit is about 18,000 Hz, Barn Owls is only
12,000; of course, we humans usually lose the upper part of our range as
we age), so a dog whistle that is so high as to be inaudible to humans
would be just as silent to an owl. Owls have exceptionally good high
frequency hearing *for a bird*, but still don't approach the upper limits
of human, let alone dog hearing. I don't know that the upper limits of
Great Horned Owl hearing have been tested, but Tawny and Long-eared Owls
top out at 13,000, still well below the human limit, and are described as
being the best of the ten owls tested in that respect.

So, while I'm inclined to believe Stuart McKay's suggestion that the owl
responded to the dog and not the whistle, I would love to hear more if
there is more to the story.

Chris Hill
Seattle, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu

On Sun, 22 Jan 1995, Ted Becker wrote:

>
> I just heard of an incident where a person was out training their dog at
> dusk and was buzzed by an owl. This happened on more than one occasion
> near the same location. With a little experimentation they determined
> that the owl was attracted to the "silent" dog whistle. Has any one else
> had this experience? Does it seem like a reliable way to call owls?
>
> >From the description the owl was probably a Great Horned Owl. The time
> and location was near the ATL plant adjacent to I405 near Bothell and
> occurred a couple years ago. Any other owl reports from that area?
>