>On a tangent to the discussion of "hooting" for owls, I'm curious as to
>what kind of calls people have heard Saw-whets making. I have only heard
>them 2 or 3 times in Alaska and the call was a steady beep-beep-beep like a
>little back-up bell.

That's the call I've heard. Woke up one morning while backpacking in
New Mexico to the sound of a construction machine backing up in the
tree right over my tent.

>To me that isn't the least bit reminiscent of whetting
>a saw, yet their name is supposed to derive from the sound of their call.

Owls have a lot of different calls. Particularly when kids are around,
and when pairing. Great-horned kids, for instance, make a sound exactly
like a tent zipper being opened up quickly. Heard this at the Goshutes
during fall raptor migration - we have a resident pair of great-horneds.
Parent perching and calling above my tent, etc. Annoying tent-zipper
sound for several nights, clearly an owl, but which? (we've had barreds
too, amazing for Nevada!?!?) A fellow bird-nerd, appropriately enough
from Seattle, who was banding that year got up in the 2-3AM zone to
track down that tent-zipper, and caught the great-horned chick in the
act. Right in the midst of camp.

These calls, and contact calls like barreds and spotties make (and others),
are totally different than the more-or-less melodious calls one often
associates with owls.

>Does it have more of a metallic whang when heard up close? Or do they have
>different calls in different parts of the country?

Different calls for different purposes.