Last night about 130am my wife heard an owl-like sound that was not a
Barred. She described the sound as an evenly-spaced higher pitched "hoot,
hoot." She said it was nothing like the barred owls, even when they are
singing together, nor like the Eastern Screech which she heard as a child
and we've heard once near our house, and certainly not a Barn owl which
we've heard periodically over the years, and I caught a glimpse of on one
occasion.
With all the excitement over the Snowy, she wondered if it was that--so I
grabbed my smart phone and played the song of the Snowy--after telling her
it probably wasn't that one given their penchant for wide open spaces like
airports, farm fields, beaches, and open water which more closely mimic
their home turf. She said emphatically that that song was not what she
heard.
So, I continued to play owls songs and she said that the song she heard
last night was a Burrowing Owl. Given that we're not in Florida, nor in
the far west of the country, I'm highly doubtful that that would be the
case. But she was adamant that the Burrowing owl song I played was what she
heard. I wpndered since we are seeing an irruption of Snowies, and western
hummingbirds have been wintering over on the east coast, whether folks had
heard of the other species doing this.
SO, as I was writing this, I did a quick check of e-Bird and see that there
were three reports of Burrowing Owl in 1983--two below Charlottesville, Va
and one in Garret, Md.
Has anyone heard anything that resembles the sound of a Burrowing Owl?
I've not seen any rare bird alerts from Cornell on the Burrowing Owl?
Meanwhile, I'll try to sleep lighter tonight and will grab my phone to try
to record the critter if it comes back tonight, whatever it is.
Adam Beidler
Vienna, Va
