A figment of my dream??

The other night, I was sleeping with the windows open, due to the heat. Just outside our windows are large cedar and Douglas fir trees, with very tall alders and maples all around. These trees often harbor Western Screech Owls, and have been known to have a stray Great Horned Owl now and then. I am very familiar with the calls of these two birds, and have listened carefully to tapes of owl songs known to be in the Pacific Northwest. However, I am not familiar with eastern bird songs, having seldom been birding there.

Anyway, I was awakened (I think) in the middle of the night by a strange bird call I had never heard before. My first reaction, in my half-awake state, was "It's an owl". Then I thought, "Wait, it can't be an owl, the call is too fast", at least compared to any owl call I had ever heard. I can only describe it as a fairly loud medium-pitched whinny with a downward trend, repeated over and over, always exactly the same. I heard it again toward early morning (just before dawn). Haven't heard it since or ever before.

Perused my bird books looking for a bird that would call in the middle of the night, with a call anything like what I had heard. Saw the Eastern Screech-Owl description, and got out my bird tapes to listen. The tape of the Eastern Screech-Owl sounded very much like what I heard. I realize that if it were an Eastern Screech-Owl, it would have been very far out of range. So I have some questions:

- Have there been previous records of eastern screech-owl in Western Washington?
- Is this the right habitat where one might stop over for a night?
- If not that, what other bird might sound like that and call in the middle of the night?

Of course, there is the slight possibility that I really wasn't awake and dreamed the whole thing, though I really doubt it :-)

- Teresa Michelsen
tcmnem at halcyon.com