>
>
>On Mon, 26 Feb 1996 PAGODROMA at aol.com wrote:
>
> What kind of owl (I assume it is an owl) would be flying around in the
middle of the >night, over typical Seattle-urban 'East Side' .
>
> and Chris Hill responded

>Of course, the habitat sounds wrong for both those species (wooded), but
>it's possible that an individual barn or short-eared might call while
>"commuting" over your neighborhood.

For the past three years I've had consistent sightings of a Barn Owl over
the Kitsilano district of Vancouver, B.C; this is about 2 miles from the
centre of town!

I've been told that one or more roosts under a bridge at a place called
Granville Island. This may tie in as my sightings have almost always been
of a single bird flying SW away from that area. I have one sighting of two
birds flying to that area.

Usually the bird can be heard first, and then seen. The call is similar to
the one described by Richard but I would say of about 2 seconds duration.
The interval between calls is anything from 10 to 30 seconds. The sightings
are most frequent after 10 p.m. and I've heard them much later than this
from my bed.

If Richard's owl is a Barn I'm suprised that he can't see it. The area I
see them in is not lit that well but the street lights are enough to make a
Barn Owl look really white against a dark sky. On a clear night its quite a
haunting sight.




Eric Greenwood
Vancouver, B.C.
egreenw at helix.net