What a hoot!

For the past three nights, we have had some special visitors to our house. At dusk a group of owls starts swooping around the house and making a lot of noise. They are very large and very loud, making a high-pitched squealy call. They fly all around the expanse of newly spread dirt that will soon become the back yard. They perch in the few trees that we left standing in the clearing and call to each other. Yesterday I think there were about five of them, and they keep up this racket for 2-3 hours a night! It's really very impressive.

I can't figure out what species they are though. They don't have the feathery "horns" of a great horned owl, all the large owls I have read about have deep calls, and they are flying around in the open at dusk. They have me really confused. I did manage to get a recording of their call, so hopefully that will help me identify them. Since I only see them at dusk, I haven't gotten a good look at them, but I think the underside of their wings is white.

I hope they stick around. I'm a little honored that they think our home is a good place to hang out. We just have to make sure we keep Jerome in at dusk; a little white fluffy kitten on the ground seems like easy prey!