John,
Thanks for sharing that with us. I perhaps had an advantage of living
and regularly recording in exactly that type of habitat.
The Long-eared and Flammulated Owls sound a bit alike but are very
unlikely to be encountered in the same habitat. Specifically, FLOW is
not likely and LEOW is very likely to be in the habitat you describe. =
Also, the pace of calling is a bit slower with LEOW. Keep up the good
work documenting those owls.
Kevin
On Jun 2, 2010, at 10:45 PM, hartogj wrote:
>
> Good guesses, you all. Martyn got closest to the actual location
> guessing Malheur wildlife refuge which is only about 50 miles away.
> You all got Western US right - the Pacific chorus frogs sure give
> that away. The killdeer, ducks, coyotes, Pacific chorus frogs, and
> short-eared owl may be found together in many habitats throughout
> the Pacific Northwest. "Coastal" was a fairly common guess and the
> only thing that would not fit that picture (besides no Pacific Ocean
> roar in the background) is the species giving the droning chorus,
> which I believe is Great Basin Spadefoot. Can anyone corroborate on
> that? It was my first time to hear them.
>
> Looking at EPA ecoregion maps, the area can be narrowed down as
> North American Deserts: Cold Deserts: Northern Basin and Range: High
> Desert Wetlands.
>
> In some years, this desert basin features a vast network of
> interconnected lakes (Warner Wetlands) rimmed by sage covered dunes.
> For the last three years however, this area has been pretty much all
> dried up except for some mud and sporadic seasonal pooling of rain
> water. The streams in the mountains that feed the area are running
> higher than normal this spring, so I am hopeful the lakes may begin
> rebound.
>
> Tom and David, I think the "piping" or "~3.5 KHz" calls you are
> hearing may be killdeer, and Kevin's comments on species seems to
> support that.
> I didn't start recording until the chorus was full swing, so I don't
> have the beginning transition, but the recording does get
> interestingly sleepy later as the drone slows down to a few snoring
> individuals. Rob is right about the mics being positioned above sand
> or water =96 dried silty lake bottom (or desert playa) actually. On
> the tripod the mics were about 6 feet high.
>
> Kevin, last year you pointed out a male short-eared owl call in a
> recording I made last year just a few miles from this very spot. I
> only recorded one night this trip, but I have the short-eared owl
> calling like that from dusk to dawn in periodic bouts lasting 5
> minutes to one hour with from 10 seconds to two minutes between
> individual calls. There is also what sounds like a flamulated owl
> through a lot of the night, though it could be a long-eared owl. A
> burrowing owl also calling with the pacific chorus frogs closer to
> dawn in the recording - likely the same owl that was calling beside
> my tent most of the night.
>
> John Hartog
>
>
>
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