For weeks – or is it months by now? – Kathy and I have been hearing a strange sound in and around our yard in the late evening hours. The very first time we heard it, it sounded to us almost like it was a cry of pain or hunger of a small animal of some kind. By the time we’d heard the sound a second time, we were fairly certain it was the sound of a bird- but what? The sound would never seem to come from exactly the same place – and sometimes there would seem to be two or three birds calling to one another. It was not a song-like sound but a rather plaintive squawk or screech. Finally one night when the sound was especially loud and seemed to be close by, we went out into our front yard and realized the sound was coming from something sitting on the roof of our neighbor’s house. We could just barely make out its silhouette in the dark, but it was enough to confirm that we weren’t hearing things- that it was a bird- and that we wouldn’t rest until we knew exactly what this thing was. (I did go running back into the house and came back out with four flashlights- four PATHETIC flashlights that couldn’t begin to reach as high as our neighbor’s house, even when we were standing in their driveway.)
After that, our first stop was, of course, the internet- and a website I found with almost 200 sound samples of bird songs – all birds from Wisconsin. (uwgb.edu/birds/wbba/speciesaudios.htm) But a quick perusal failed to turn up anything that sounded exactly like what we had been hearing, and we knew that it was time to bring in an expert. So the next time we heard the bird, I was out in our yard with our handy dandy Zoom H4 digital recorder, gathering a sound sample- while Kathy who remembered that he had a friend from church who was also an ardent birdwatcher- Jim Veltman, who was excited to hear what we had recorded. In fact, he came to church the next morning with his own iPod that contains over 900 bird songs and sounds – whoa! – and right off the bat he played for us what he thought might be our bird. (based on what we had told him over the phone.) But nope. And when I took out the Zoom and played our sample for him, he was stumped. It was a sound he knew he had heard before, but he couldn’t say just what it was.
That evening, Kathy and I heard the sound yet again – and she typed something about it on Facebook. We learned the next morning that the Veltmans- seeing that posting – drove to our house (easily a ten minute drive at least) and sat out in our yard to hear it for themselves. Now that is an ardent birdwatcher! But that particular night, the bird was somewhere in the woods adjacent to our house, so it was impossible to get a look at it. (Too bad, too, because Jim had brought along a special beacon light that would have illuminated it very easily, had it been sitting in a more accessible spot.) Jim’s guess was that it might be a Nighthawk, but certain identification was hard without actually seeing it.
The big breakthrough came just last night, when the Veltmans- Jim, Jean, and their daughter Meghan- stopped by to pick up something we’re donating for a fundraiser this weekend. The bird was back and as they were leaving, I think it was Megan who was able to trace the sound to a dark silhouette up in one of the trees. And sure enough- that was our mystery bird, perched at the very top of a tall, distant tree, on a thin branch. (It’s amazing how a good-sized bird can do that without the branch so much as bending.) Like before, it was far too dark to see as much as we wanted, but through binoculars you could make out the unmistakable “ears” that adorn the head of the Great Horned Owl. It was really exciting, and I don’t even know how long the five of us stood in our driveway, transfixed by a sight that actually amounted to scarcely more than a black blob. But somehow, all the same, it was a glorious sight… and it was so exciting to be able to attach a name to our nocturnal feathered friend. And maybe one of these days, we’ll see it in the light of day.
pictured above: Jean, Meghan and Jim Veltman admiring our Great Horned Owl. By the way, I tried mightily to take a photo of the bird itself, but it was simply too dark and no matter how I reset the camera, there was simply no way to capture the image. But trust me- it was there!