It does give a screech that sounds like the sharpening of a saw on an
old stone grinder (whet stone) but very rarely. Many other owls give a
similar screech begging. At times we hear something like it during the
winter when we disturb the owl during owl counts.
The "barks" in the first one usually means an owl that is disturbed and
complaining about it. Have never heard one go on so long - usually just
a bark or two.
There is a clip from my class CD at
ftp://owlnut.rr.ualberta.ca/pub/barb/sounds/SawWhetPygmy.mp3
It has very normal vocalizations of both owls (both owls were identified
by visuals) and a small strange vocalization of a Pygmy at the end where
he is trying to mimic a Boreal Owl. I had the owl in the binos when he
was doing this
I have never heard a pygmy owl sound even remotely like the second clip
you put up
Barb Beck
Edmonton
John Hartog wrote:
>Had I only caught a glimpse, but I never saw-whet.
>Thanks for all the input: for now I'm leaning toward the Northern
>Saw-whet Owl. I looked up both birds in Sibley's and in Birds of
>Oregon. I found that the Northern Pigmy Owl's toots are spaced
>more than a second apart, while the Saw-whet's toots are
>spaced about half a second apart, so the Saw-whet makes more
>sense to me.
>Birds of Oregon also mentions that none of the Saw-whet's
>many vocalizations sound like a saw being whetted - what ever
>that sounds like.
>-John Hartog
>
>
>
>
>
>--- In "John Hartog"
><> wrote:
>
>
>>Both of these snippets are from a recording made last May at a
>>
>>
>lake
>
>
>>in a patch of forest in the Coast Range of northwest Oregon. It
>>
>>
>was
>
>
>>around 5am - twilight but still dark enough to need a flashlight
>>
>>
>to
>
>
>>find the trail. It was very quiet then and so were these sounds.
>>
>>This first one sounds like an osprey to me.
>>www.hevanet.com/rockscallop/040509_Mystery_a.mp3
>>
>>This second and more distant sound began about three
>>
>>
>minutes later
>
>
>>and continued at a steady pace for a good two minutes. Could
>>
>>
>it be a
>
>
>>Northern Pigmy Owl?
>>www.hevanet.com/rockscallop/040509_Mystery_b.mp3
>>
>>Your help is greatly appreciated.
>>John Hartog
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>"Microphones are not ears,
>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>A listening room is not nature."
>Klas Strandberg
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
>
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