Early Morning Wake Up Call: A Screech Owl
October 5, 2007 by phantommidge
For some reason, I couldn’t seem to get any sleep last night. So, I was laying in bed at 5:30 a.m. trying not to think about the fact that the alarm would go off soon and willing myself to get some shut eye (because THAT works so well…) and I heard a sound.
I sat upright, because I thought I recognized it. It was the haunting sound of a screech owl calling. As I listened, it came closer. In fact, it swooped in to the tree right out front and continued to call.
I love that sound! And if I had been asleep I would have missed it. It felt like a gift.
Sadly, a jet flew over and then that noise was combined with the ambient car traffic we get from living in the city so the owl was drowned out. It made me think about how much I must miss hearing by living in our industrialized society. (Not that I am advocating anything radical, I mean I am using a laptop computer now so I can’t be too overly critical…).
Still…heavy sigh.
The one place on earth I have been where it felt like there was absolute silence was a remote part of the North rim of the Grand Canyon. It was so quiet it was deafening. If you’ve been there (or someplace like it), you will know what I mean.
Should you want to hear the sound of a screech owl, go to this page and scroll to the bottom. Beautiful!
(Also, check out this page for photos and more info on the screech owl).
did you check Little Pearls site? beautiful shot of owl swooping in with sound. i have a resident owl as a neighbor, also a red-tailed hawk…both great singers.
I feel your pain … while we live in a nifty neighborhood, it’s pretty darn urban, so not only do we hear cars up and down the street, and the idiot kid next door talking too loud on his porch, but we get a fairly loud ambient drone from the freeway about a mile to the south of us. I never realized how much noisy it is until we spent our week at Cape Cod, and though our cottage there was on Route 6A (the Old King’s Highway, which dates back to the 1600s, though only paved in the last 100 years), by late evening, the traffic noise dwindled greatly (to the occasional car passing by every 5 or 10 minutes or even longer), and our night was filled only with the sound of crickets and frogs and various little creatures from the nearby salt marsh. It was amazing. No planes flying over, no heavy traffic, no human voices, just the sounds of nature at night. Even more amazing when I’d go outside the cottage, and because there were no streetlamps around there or shopping plazas, there was very little light pollution, so I could see stars and constellations like I’ve never seen them here … except when we had the Great Blackout a few years back!
we have several of these out where I live–they call back and forth across the swamp. Creepy and cool both!
what are some early morning wake up birds?
Steve,
I’m guessing you are asking what some other early morning birds might be?
Since many birds are active and calling in the early morning, especially now that it’s spring, it’s hard to list them all. Also, it really depends on where you live and the local habitat.
I would suggest taking a look at this site:
http://www.learnbirdsongs.com/
…which has a lot of common bird calls
Also, check out eNature: http://www.enature.com/birding/audio.asp
…for more birds calls