[obol] Pre-dawn owl calls

[Darrel Faxon]

Lars,
    Here at Thornton Creek ( Lincoln) I heard multiple Western Screech and 
Northern Pygmy Owls calling either just before or just after dawn nearly 
every day in October.  This situation is typical for the month at this 
location.  I also have heard Great Horned calling many evenings just after 
dusk, and Saw-whets off and on after it gets fully dark.  It is my opinion 
that October is far and away the best month of the year to listen for owl 
vocalizations, but you have to be willing to be out there in the dark, both 
morning and evening.

Darrel
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Norgren Family" <gnorgren at earthlink.net>
To: "obol" <obol at lists.oregonstate.edu>
Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2007 4:53 AM
Subject: [obol] Pre-dawn owl calls


>     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
>
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