Thank you all so much for your help! I really appreciate all the leads! I think that, thanks to the subscribers on Tweeters, that I have narrowed down the search to owls. I had initially said the calls didn't sound like an owl's, but upon further investigation and listening to the caterwauling calls of the barred owl and the sounds of the long-earred owl, it does sound more like an owl than anything else. It's still not exactly what I heard, but the tone, lenth, and volume are very similar to the owl's calls. The initial sounds I had gotten off the internet were mainly the typical hooting sounds associated with owls. I really had no idea how broad their vocal range was and I didn't realize how fantastic their sounds were. Thanks again for all of your help.

One more thing, I have had folks from the Tweeters list help me in the past with birding surveys at various wetland mitigation sites (I am an environmental biologist with Pierce County) and it was wonderful! If anyone else is interested, please drop me an e-mail. We love to have volunteers help us with our surveys! We also like to do amphibian monitoring, volunteer plant installation, etc. so if you are interested, please let me know. We have also had Audobon Society volunteers help us by placing bird houses and duck boxes in our mitigation sites. I would love to get something going on a semi-regular basis. If you have any ideas or would like to help, please let me know!

Michelle Banonis

Michelle L. Banonis, Environmental Biologist
Pierce County Public Works and Utilities, Transportation Services
Consultant/Environmental Engineering Section
2702 South 42nd Street
Suite 309
Tacoma, Washington 98409
Phone: (253)798-7044
Fax: (253)798-3661