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Little Owl ?

Subject: Little Owl ?
From: "chrishails50" chrishails50
Date: Sun Jun 19, 2011 8:37 am ((PDT))
Dear all, 

Can anyone help me id this sound ? It was recorded about 3 weeks ago near an 
old gravel pit bordering a woodland in western Switzerland at 500m asl about 
11.00 on a clear sunny morning.

The sound seemed to be coming from an elevated grassy bank immediately next to 
the wood, and at the time I thought it was a small mammal in the grass, but I 
realise now that it may have been in the edge of the trees. There is not much 
reference material on it but my thoughts are that it may have been a call of 
the European Little Owl (Athene noctua). I heard it calling intermittently like 
this over the space of 30 mins or so, the sound carried a good 500+ meters 
which is when I first heard it and started to track it down:

http://wildechoes.org/exchange/Mystery%20extract.mp3

No filtering or EQ applied this is straight out the can.

This is not the normal A.noctua "song" but seems to correspond quite closely 
with the excitement call on this page:

http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Athene&species=noctua

It would be rare but not impossible in that particular location, but I have not 
encountered this sound before.

All help gratefully received !

Thanks

Chris
http://wildechoes.org
 







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