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Owl Calls



Leah,
Several years ago, a local farmer reported hearing, and occasionally
seeing, a rather large bird on his property, mainly in the evening, He
had some knowledge of the local birds, so he thought it was one of the
hawks. He invited some of the area birders out to his farm in hopes of
identifying the bird in question. After a number of visits, some of us
heard bark-like sounds, and saw a large bird fly into the woods.
Unfortunately, it was already quite dark so we couldn't make a positive
id, but we began thinking Great Horned Owl. We referred to one of the
audio bird recordings, probably Birding by Ear, and learned that young
horned owls make a wide variety of yelps and bark-like calls. A few
evenings later, I caught the culprit in my scope. It was a Creat Horned
Owl. The farmer, who had been hearing these guys in his woods for some
fifty years doing their usual hoots, refused to believe our id until I
played the recording to him over the phone. It was a learning experience
for us all!

Tom Joyce 
Brevard, NC