Subject: [Tweeters] RE: Owls in Olympia parks, Feb 23 and 25
Date: Feb 27 19:23:38 2008
From: Rod Gilbert - rodgilbert1 at comcast.net


I've been running around the east side of Priest Point park now for the last few Fridays and weekends around 11:00 am. During my laps I repeatedly heard a Great Horned Owl that was calling the weekends of 8/2-10/2 and 15/2-17/2. I finally saw it perched up above the trail on 17/2 which is always a nice treat when out for a run. I went out again last weekend, hopeful that I would see the GHO, but no sound of it on Friday. It had been moving around the park so I assumed it had slowly moved on. I did, however, hear the owl in question and it puzzled me as well. The call was a single, mono-tone whistle that was repeated many times (maybe for a minute or more at a time ?). My first thought was a Pygmy, but as I've only heard them on recordings, the shorter intervals and length of the call were different from the recordings I've heard. The spacing between each whistle was about the same and didn't vary at all. When I got home I googled both Pygmy and Saw Whet Owl calls. The call I heard didn't sound like any of the calls I found on line for the Saw Whet but I assume it can be quite variable. It seemed to most resemble a female Pygmy but even that didn't sound quite right. I went again on Saturday and no owl. On Sunday it was calling again and after my run, I ran home and grabbed my CD player and camera and repeatedly played both calls toward the owl to no avail. What ever was calling out there wasn't tempted by the CD (the Pygmy call I had was a male)assuming it could hear it. One of the interesting things about the call was how hard it was trying to determine where the call was coming from. It was a fantastic ventriloquist which I assumed was because it was turning its head between individual whistles.

rodgilbert1atcomcastdotnet