>
>One of my favorite stories is when one of the biologists one day was calling
>for Barred Owl and he got a nice, but somewhat distant response. He moved
>towards the sound, occasionally calling. The response got stronger. It sounded
>somewhat offbeat to him though. Almost like the call of the eastern Barred Owl
>he grew up with.
>Time passed and the caller and respondent got closer. But, no owl was visible.
>He did run into Gene Hunn (I believe that's who it was, too bad Gene is in
>Mexico or he could corroborate this story) so he asked him if he had been
>hearing the Barred Owl. To which Gene responded with "that was me." Turns out
>Gene did learn his Barred Owl call from eastern tapes...

Gene's imitation works well, though. During last spring's Audobon Birdathon,
Gene called in a Barred owl at McDonald Park in Carnation, WA. It flew to
within 40 feet of us and called several more times while it examined the six of
us 'thoners. It only left because several American robins (!) chased it away.
It was one of our 106 King County (Washington) birds that day.

. 0> Bruce Helmboldt "tHe cold Bumbler"
. _/_)_ bruhelmboldt at worldnet.att.net
. / bruhelmboldt at geocities.com
. bruhelmboldt at hotmail.com
. M.S.U. Class of '68 Duvall, WA, USA
. 47* 42' 22" North, 121* 58' 26" West
. http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/8468