We are vacationing at Kelowna, BC, staying on the west side of the lake at Lake Okanagan Resort, rather rural for a resort.

So far, the only special sightings have been the CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD that comes to our deck, and the BLUE GROUSE we caught a glimpse of at the side of the road, and the OSPREY doing its diving thing into the water at the golf course. Others we don't see at home in Vancouver, WA are YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, MAGPIE, BULLOCK'S ORIOLE, and CALIFORNIA QUAIL.

The really unusual event was the loud screeching we heard last night several times after dark. Screech is the best word to describe the sound. Like something used in danger although that did not seem to be the cause. Each screech lasted about 1/2 second at 15 second intervals. I timed the space counting 1-1000, 2-1000, etc enough to be confident in that spacing of screeches. We heard this three different times between 10:30 and 12:30 when we finally gave up the ghost and went to bed.

Any ideas?

David Barber
at Kelowna BC