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Index of Subjects Thanks to all for the info and opinions, which apparently narrows it down to either a Great Horned or a Barred Owl. We have mourning doves visiting feeders or hanging out fairly often here so I know the calls -- this was much louder and bolder (less soft & mellifluous) -- not a mourning dove. There was no doubt that this particular owl (at least when on its game that morning) was an invariant 4-hooter, so my question was whether a 4-hoot was definitive or not -- this seemed to be less convincing to some than to others. The only part of the original description I'd clarify is about the first note described as a 'Huh'. I wrote this in differently to clarify that the first note's perceived 'tone' was pitched a bit higher than the following three notes. It would have been fairer to write Hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo as the general quality of sound was entirely similar for all 4 notes, just a little higher for the first one (shouldn't call it a 'tone' -- it's obviously a broad-band call). All 4 notes were evenly pitched within each syllable, with no detectable up or down centre frequency shift or overtone change. That sounds like a GHO if Susann Myers is correct. I haven't had a chance to visit the Cornell U site yet -- thanks for the suggestion. I once bought their acoustic analysis software, Canary I, but never used it much. Regarding habitat, we live on the north edge of Chocolate Lake near the Armdale Rotary. We're the middle of three somewhat treed lots, of which the one to the west has by far the largest area of mostly natural trees including conifers, but none of them are really stout, old trees suitable for nesting for a big bird. The calls came from that direction. The nearest possibly suitable treed area is several lots further away at the west end of the lake just above the sewage pumping station. Several mature white pines have still been left in place there, though the wooded area above has been gradually bulldozer-ravaged by a developer who has been slowly building several houses on an improbably steep slope (at least one large pine was chain sawed). As a half-perplexed aside on this, one of the strangely anti-educational aspects of North American bird books (I have Sibley, Smithsonian/Floyd, a Peterson, & Kaufman) is that they usually fail to say anything about early stages -- nesting habit, egg types etc. As a result, I actually don't know if a GH owl needs a large tree hole to nest in or could take over a crow's nest, etc., so I wouldn't know what to look for in this case. This lack of info is in marked contrast to some UK books that I grew up with which had all this stuff in spades, although I don't think they were called field guides. I'm guessing that these N. Am omissions may be the result of some latter-day politically correctness pressure -- presumably from activists aiming to discourage people from disturbing nest sites (or egg-collecting, or getting interested in intrusively identifying the nest owners from the nest construction and the egg type). Is this a fair inference, or is there some other explanation? The 'well, page space is limited and costs big money' argument doesn't sound too convincing. Does anyone know what the background to this imagined conformity is, or do I just have the wrong books? Steve Quoting Suzanne Borkowski <suzanneborkowski@yahoo.ca>: > Hi Steve; > I'd never question the expertise of Susann Myers or Joan Czapalay > when it comes to identifying owls - I've been lucky enough to go > owling with both of them - but I have to say that your description of > the call sounds more like the Barred Owl than the Great Horned to me. > > It's funny how a written description can vary from a spoken one. > I've read yours several times now, and it sounds like the four notes > of a Barred which calls in two sets of two notes: Huh-Hoo and then > Hoo-Hoo with the fourth note being slightly drawn out. The pause > between the two sets is very brief. (Who cooks for you?) > > To my ear, the great Horned gives a 5 note call: Three notes, then > two notes - Huh-Huh-Huh - Hoo Hoo (Who's awake - Me too) > > Just my two cents worth. > > Where in Halifax do you live? Are you close to a wooded area? > Cheers; > Suzanne > > --- On Tue, 3/2/10, Susann Myers <myerss@eastlink.ca> wrote: >> From: Susann Myers <myerss@eastlink.ca> >> Subject: Re: [NatureNS] Which owl? >> To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca >> Received: Tuesday, March 2, 2010, 5:35 PM >> Hi, Steve. >> >> The owl that has a call similar to what you describe, both >> in pattern and being basically all on one note, is the Great >> Horned Owl. The Barred Owl's calls, even its >> one-syllable "Whooooo", vary a great deal in pitch. >> >> To compare the Great Horned's call to the Mourning Dove's, >> you could go to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website, >> where it's easy to play the calls of a bird that interests >> you. It is at www.birds.cornell.edu >> >> Cheers, >> Susann Myers >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Shaw" <srshaw@DAL.CA> >> To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca> >> Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 10:25 PM >> Subject: [NatureNS] Which owl? >> > A couple of mornings ago I was rudely wakened around >> 6:20 AM (already light >> then) by a loud 4-note motif coming from a tree >> somewhere outside, from what >> sounded like an owl. Over a few minutes, the >> call was repeated several times, >> Huh-hoo, hoo-hoo. The last 3 syllables were >> delivered at a similar low pitch, >> while the first 'Huh' was pitched a little higher, but >> not by much. The time >> gap between 2 & 3 was longer than that between >> either 1 & 2, or 3 & 4. Couldn't >> see the caller at all. >> >> Looking in Sibley, this seems to be a best match to >> the call of a Barred Owl. >> Does that sound like a correct guess? Are they >> common? -- don't seem to hear >> many owls here. >> > Steve >> > Halifax
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