John,
Your recording sounds very much like the standard vocalizations of
the short-eared owl. If you can access Dendroica, Cornell's online
Bird ID help website, they have numerous recordings of all 3 owls
mentioned, plus every other bird in North America, if I read it
right. They do require you to register, but it was free when I
registered. You can access it here : Dendroica Bird ID Tool
Their description of the short-eared's vocalizations includes the
following text: "a variety of sharp barks like the tentative barks
of a puppy, usually directed toward human intruders" . This would
makle sense because they were located in the middle of a busy
campground. The long-eared also has an alarm call (the 5th button
of sounds for the bird in dendroica) very similar to your birds.
Their western screech recordings have no similar sounds.
Guy McGrane
John Wrote:
Mystery Sounds: unknown owl vocalizations
South Fork Crooked River, Crook County, Oregon
May 4 2012, approximately 1 hour after dusk.
Recorded outside the foot of my tent with AT3032 microphones and a
SD702 recorder. There are also some rustling and sounds in the
vicinity from other campers in our group settling in for the night.
Edits: the recording was amplified approximately 12 dB over natural,
several car doors and one stomach grumble were edited out.
If you have a guess which species might make such sounds, please feel
free to comment.
My guesses: short-eared owl, long-eared owl, or western screech owl.
John Hartog
rockscallop.org
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