On Fri, 24 Oct 1997, Rob Saecker wrote:

> Having just heard a long series of "toots" out in the forest, I came in to
> reread the posts on saw-whet calls from last spring. Chris Hill (I think)
> said that the repeated single call was given in the spring as a mating
> "advertisement". We're quite a ways from spring, is it likely for a
> saw-whet to be doing this already? If not, what other possibilities are
> there? Thanks...

Jack Bowling's right on - 1 whistle/2-3 sec = Pygmy Owl, 2-3 whistles/sec
= Saw-whet. If you hear loud rumbling accompanying the whistling, it's a
truck backing up.

To be honest, for all the hundreds of Saw-whets I've heard, I know very
little about their spontaneous calling behavior outside of the breeding
season. Saw-whets certainly give the whistled toots in the fall and
winter in response to playback, and no doubt on their own, too, but I
doubt if anyone knows how often. I've only heard an occasional "whine" or
"kew" when out in the woods in the fall, in several years of living in
prime NSWO habitat.

If you decide for sure that it was a Saw-whet you heard, that's a pretty
interesting observation.

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