[obol] Pre-dawn owl calls

[Norgren Family]

     About September 13 Lee Cain reported
a particularly vocal Barred Owl south of
Astoria. The same night a Barred Owl called
loudly near my house just after sunset, again
around midnight, and once more before dawn.
Barred Owls reared a family here last year
and were much in evidence, both by daylight
and after dark. This year they have been absent
(at least by audial evidence). The night in
question was one of the few times I have heard
a Barred Owl this calendar year.
     About a month later someone close to Eugene
reported a Pygmy Owl calling near their house.
The salient point was its unusual call- the
observer was unsure if it was a Pygmy. That same
night, close to dawn, two Pygmy Owls called
at my house, one of them making the same call
as the Eugene bird(superficially resembling the
bouncing ball of the Screech Owl).
      The Barred Owls in Manning and Astoria were
70km apart. The Pygmy Owls in Manning and Eugene
were at least 165km away from each other. I'm
wondering if atmospheric conditions or the like
inspired this simultaneous behavior at disparate
points. I sleep outside when weather permits,
so I'm more likely to catch these owl calls than
many people. They are remarkably taciturn birds.
At least 90% of nights all species of owls are
silent near my house.
      When owls do choose to vocalize, it's remarkable
that it often involves multiple species. The morning
of the Pygmy Owls in October , they were preceded
by a Barred Owl making a call I had not heard before-
a single note, a prolonged downward slur-"hooooo".
I didn't know what it was, initially attributing
it to a new( and very melancholy) dog in the neighbor-
hood. After many utterances of this note at very
prolonged intervals, it final made a single"Who cooks
for you all". The Pygmy Owls then chimed in, at the
very first discernable trace of light in the eastern
sky. It was a clear morning. One Pygmy was a short
distance west of my house, the other far to the
east and not too far from the Barred Owl.
     Last fall I commented on the lack of variety
in Pygmy owl vocalizations. Someone promptly
corrected me, citing seven or eight options in
one collection of recordings. Within a day I heard
the same stacatto call previously described in
this posting, also involving two pygmy owls and
under a clear sky with daylight imminent("A l'heure
ou blanchit la campagne." Victor Hugo ; "De Dag de
graut in Osten, Dag vart dat aeverall" Klaus Groot).
Lars Norgren MANNNING Oregon