Last year we started hearing a bird in our back woods that had a very distinctive call (besides the cuckoo). It's a single note repeated every 5 seconds or so. We only ever heard it in the evening or at night and we started hearing it in early spring last year. We noticed it when we got back in August, but haven't heard it for a while until about a month ago. We called him our little foghorn bird.
Well, on April 19th, we had the first ever Earth Day Celebration at our school and one of the non-profit groups that attended was the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, and the gentleman who was manning the booth was able to help me identify what this bird was. I described to him when and how often we heard the bird - and how it hadn't been heard in a while - and then I tried to imitate its call by saying "beep." Tee hee. He immediately said, does it sound like this? And proceeded to whistle the exact sound of the bird. When I said "yes! That's exactly it!", he said he thought it was the Scops Owl and it would probably be making an appearance in the next week or so.
And to my delight, it did exactly that - at least it's call did, I still haven't actually seen one. Scops owls are tiny (see this link for an example). I hope that some day I will be able to see one, but since they are mostly active when it's getting dark, it might be hard to see them. But I do get to hear them and honestly, I think it's one of the best sounds in the world (a purring kitty is the best sound in my opinion, closely followed by the laughter of a child, so I guess the call of a Scops owl is my third favorite sound). Every evening I hear a pair (or more pairs) having there one syllable conversations. And it just makes me smile.
I found a youtube video of 17 seconds that demonstrates the Scops owl call. Enjoy!
Well, on April 19th, we had the first ever Earth Day Celebration at our school and one of the non-profit groups that attended was the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, and the gentleman who was manning the booth was able to help me identify what this bird was. I described to him when and how often we heard the bird - and how it hadn't been heard in a while - and then I tried to imitate its call by saying "beep." Tee hee. He immediately said, does it sound like this? And proceeded to whistle the exact sound of the bird. When I said "yes! That's exactly it!", he said he thought it was the Scops Owl and it would probably be making an appearance in the next week or so.
And to my delight, it did exactly that - at least it's call did, I still haven't actually seen one. Scops owls are tiny (see this link for an example). I hope that some day I will be able to see one, but since they are mostly active when it's getting dark, it might be hard to see them. But I do get to hear them and honestly, I think it's one of the best sounds in the world (a purring kitty is the best sound in my opinion, closely followed by the laughter of a child, so I guess the call of a Scops owl is my third favorite sound). Every evening I hear a pair (or more pairs) having there one syllable conversations. And it just makes me smile.
I found a youtube video of 17 seconds that demonstrates the Scops owl call. Enjoy!
That is not at all what I thought it was going to sound like after reading your post. Cool, they sound like radar scanners or something. :)
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