[obol] Things That Go Screech In the Night

[Cindy Ashy]

Tonight, I did some owling at various spots between
Lincoln City and Newport. The best spot was the
Newport City Reservoir. After about 3 minutes of
imitating the Pygmy Owl, I heard a series of raspy
screeches on the north side of the reservoir very
close to me...then a wild commotion and some
hissing...then a big kerplunk in the water very close
to where I was standing (did it drop its prey?)...then
another series of raspy screeches very close....and
then more screeches that headed across the reservoir
to the south side and then in the distance, more
screeches........then dead silence (except a distant
neighborhood dog howling). As I waited in silence, a
shooting star shot across the sky. I decided to
imitate the Pygmy Owl again and almost immediately the
owl answered back. Every time it would stop calling,
I'd call and it would answer back. After several times
back and forth, it got really riled up and just kept
screeching and threw in some shriller whistled sounds
sometimes and some hissing. By process of elimination
and by listening to sound files, I'm almost sure it
was a Barn Owl. I tried some other spots along the
gravel road by the reservoir but never heard any more
owls....but a very beautiful night with a dark clear
sky filled with twinkling stars and shooting stars. On
my way out, I stopped and the Barn Owl was still
carrying on quite a conversation. Very cool. 

I saw a total of 7 bright shooting stars tonight, one
very bright one at Rocky Creek with a substained
trail, plus several faint ones. The Leonid meteor
shower has started early!....Saturday night is the
predicted peak.

Cindy Ashy



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