I had what must have been a short-eared owl calling about 70 feet up in my woods last night around 1 a.m.! My cats are old hands around barred, great-horned, and screech owls -- all regulars in this 'hood -- but they hit the top rail of the deck like a precision drill team, eyes and ears nervously riveted on the woods when this stranger began calling. I saw the bird fly briefly in bright moonlight, and my impression was of pale underwing and side, expected size range for short-eared as best I could tell. It (he?) didn't have the broad vocal repertoire or rich, chesty timbre of a barred owl, but certainly had some respectable hoo-hoo-hoos and a couple of barks, one that fooled me for an instant into thinking that a small dog had wandered onto my property, and a lower-pitched one reminding me of a tiny buck snorting in the woods, in repeats of 3-5. If this doesn't sound like a short-eared owl to you, please let me know what you think it might be. Thanks. Liz Singley Kingston TN =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================