The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[speckledhen]

Been wondering what the heck I was hearing in the woods near our house at night sometimes lately. Last night, I heard it again and today, I remembered to research that weird, eerie trilling noise online. I found it! We have an eastern screech owl! In this short youtube, a lady plays the exact same trilling noise I heard in our yard last night to a screech owl and it answers with a different sound of its own, but the trilling she plays is the sound. So, this year, I've added a whipporwill and a screech owl to my bird list for this place, though I haven't actually seen them, only heard them.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

I have kind of become a wild bird watcher by accident, because I live in a birding paradise near wetland, river and forest and I just hear or see them while doing chores outside or through the window. I love this site for identifying calls: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/Page.aspx?pid=1189 if you search birds like "owl" then you can hear a recording of their various calls on their ID page. Last year I heard this repeated squawking starting at dusk, and this site helped ID the bird even though I never saw it. Well who knew there are nocturnal herons. We also have great horned owls, a pair of bald eagles and sand hill cranes in the spring and summer. Not to mention wood ducks, mergansers, blue herons, green herons and I even saw trumpeter swans once.

 

[MistyMountain]

Been wondering what the heck I was hearing in the woods near our house at night sometimes lately. Last night, I heard it again and today, I remembered to research that weird, eerie trilling noise online. I found it! We have an eastern screech owl! In this short youtube, a lady plays the exact same trilling noise I heard in our yard last night to a screech owl and it answers with a different sound of its own, but the trilling she plays is the sound. So, this year, I've added a whipporwill and a screech owl to my bird list for this place, though I haven't actually seen them, only heard them.

Oh! We had the same mystery when we moved here about two years ago! It took me a while to figure it out. So funny because you think with a name like that they would make an unpleasant sound. I actually like their trill… very appropriate for night time forest sounds, to me. We have never seen ours either, just know they are there.

The cardinals are everywhere here. Fitting, since they are the state bird. That is one call (and the robin's) that I can tell apart from others.

Funny story.. I will try not to let it get too long. DH and I kept hearing this nighttime bird call-- three cheeps, all the same tone and length, every time we would go outside and the door would slap shut. We thought it was some sort of warning call. I would hear it often and it seemed like it came from different directions sometimes when I would walk down the hill to the coop to lock up. One time I was in our camper and I hear the noise and thought "oh man, that thing built a nest on the roof or in the AC. Well, time passed and we could never ID out night time chirper. Until one day I happened to be in the camper when that mysterious bird cheep cheep cheeped again. I looked up… and there it was… attached to the ceiling and in need of new batteries… Sneaky carbon monoxide detector!

 

[seminolewind]

When I moved down here to florida, I'd sit outside at night and hear that noise. First I thought it was a rabbit dying. What a haunting noise! It took me months to find out what it was. Kind of an eerie noise.

 

[seminolewind]

Roosters will be roosters. But I did take a chance and hatch 10 silkies in March. I think 7 are roos. So I might be having a true bachelor pad. I love silkie roos. It's a good thing I do.

 

[speckledhen]

Screech owls can make bizarre noises, which was what I thought was all they did, so it never occurred to me it was a bird, this trilling. Foxes make all sorts of strange vocalizations but I never found anything that matched the sound I was hearing, just accidentally came across "screech owl trilling" on youtube, listened and bingo! Here is another youtube that shows they make lots of much less pleasant sounds, too:

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Wow, those various sounds were pretty creepy. My 2 cats were in the room when I played the video, and they perked up their ears and looked like they weren't sure if they should be scared or annoyed.

 

[1muttsfan]

when I lived down state I had a screech owl that lives in the woods behind my house, and it was trill at night - I just love that sound

The wild Firesensor bird!

 

[speckledhen]

We've heard a Great Horned Owl here in previous years, but never a Screech Owl until now. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't something that would want to eat Finn! I mean, it's the size of a pint jar, but I hear they are no slouch as hunters.


Speaking of pint jars, we put up 19 pints of spaghetti sauce (ate #20) and we were putting up the first few of salsa and ran into issues with lids not sealing. I think it is the new cheapo Mainstay brand from Walmart. Next time we buy, we go name brand, tried-and-true all the way. Until now, we've only used Ball or Golden Harvest. We even put those two jars back through the water bath and same result. The two from that box just will not seal. Either faulty jar mouth edge or bad lids or both. What also bugs me about the Mainstay jars is that they have no markings on them to indicate they are even good canning jars! What on earth is up with that? Makes me wonder about those, too.

 

[drumstick diva]

I'm not all together happy with any of Walmart's brand stuff either- I stay with name brands I can count on.