Sounds like an owl, but I can't find it! (1 Viewer)

[shelliebear]

Hi there,
I joined this site because for about the last 3 weeks, I've been doing nothing but scratching my head over this bird who keeps hooting at night around my apartment.
I live in Spokane, Washington, and at night time on some nights (he keeps moving around, so it's not every night I hear him), I hear a bird hooting, typically coming from the open field across the highway from our apartment.
I can't find him, as I can't enter the field (private property), and he's only out at night anyway.
It sounds like a large bird as his voice carries so far and sounds very deep, yet soft; I'm guessing an owl, however absolutely NONE of the recordings of ANY pacific northwest owl I've heard sound ANYTHING like him.
He makes a soft, but loud hoot that goes like this:
"Hoo...hoo,hoo". There's a ~2 second pause between the first hoot, and a .5 second pause or so between the second two hoots. Like I said, it's a very soft hoot, but it carries far; he doesn't screech or anything like that.
It's pretty cold up here in the pacific northwest, don't know if that helps I.D. him.
As of right now I don't have a recording of him hooting, but I'm trying to get one. He stopped doing it as soon as I decided I was going to record him for an I.D. check. :-C
I'll keep trying though.
Is there any hope of pointing my in the direction of any birds that make a hoo/hoot sound like this, any recordings of their sounds or anything? I'd really like to find out what he is. It's driving me nuts! (in a good way)
Thank you so much for your time. Been scratching my head for weeks....
Shellie

 

[bitterntwisted]

Xeno-canto is the best site for recordings. I'd start with Great Horned Owl... http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Bubo-virginianus

 

[shelliebear]

Hmm, some of those do sound quite a lot like him. The only thing is I haven't heard him do a single little trill kinda of thing on the first or last hoo's. They're just plain simple hoo's, but that sounds a lot like him. Any advice on how I would go about finding him to check what type he is?

 

[MLoyko]

Sounds very good for a Great Horned. As for finding it, it would be really hard to find them as by walking up on them they would more than likely go silent and/or fly without you even knowing they left. If it's on private property I wouldn't trespass and ask the owner for permission to owl on their property. Either way the Great Horned is pretty unmistakable and I think if you study up a bit on the recordings bitterntwisted sent you I think you will be able to ID the bird without the challenge of seeing it in the flesh.

good luck :t:
Matt