Owl calls in Germany--Taunus (2 Viewers)

[Tom St]

Recording made on 20th June 2023 about an hour after sunset in the Taunus region.

Some nights in the past week, I heard a nocturnal bird give a series of calls. One night, I managed to record the final two calls in a series (see attached audio file). I know it's not a great recording, but it's all I could get.

What could it be?

 

[jurek]

Sounds much like an alarm call of a larger gull, which can fly and call after dark

 

[Tom St]

I don‘t think there are many large gulls here in the Weil valley. 😄 Also, it sounded like the bird was stationary, not flying over.

 

[tconzemi]

The rule in owl calls is: if you don't know what it is, it is Tawny Owl

XC809255 Tawny Owl (Strix aluco)

xeno-canto.org

 

[Tom St]

Haha 😄 I will keep that rule in mind. There are Tawny Owls in the vicinity, I hear them frequently. What puzzled me about the calls in question is that I could not make them into Tawny Owl ‚kew-wick‘ calls. I can in the recording shared by you. I was thinking of Little Owl (like this one XC456728 Little Owl (Athene noctua)), but I don‘t know if those even occur here. If I can manage a better recording, I will post it here.

 

[Butty]

What puzzled me about the calls in question is that I could not make them into Tawny Owl ‚kew-wick‘ calls.

There's no reason why you should expect to: different calls are different calls, and any one call from a given species may well not sound anything like that species' other calls.

 

[Tom St]

On 23rd June, the owl was singing instead of calling (see attached). I didn't get around to uploading sooner. It is a Little Owl. Thank you all for your input on an admittedly bad recording!