My favorite strigidae family owl is the charming little saw whet, but my heart belongs to the tytos, especially our beautiful, white barn owl. Our clicking, hissing,screaming-fit-to-make-your-hair-fall-out barn owl. Love those inscrutable solid-black eyes.

However, neither of these are any good for recording and listening. You need a big old booming horned or great grey owl for that. Will you please make a CD that’s all owls? I know your secret reason why you haven’t yet: squatting behind a bush all night is tough enough without adding cold wind and perhaps a wet bottom into the equation. well, suck it up, Nature Guy!!! Just imagine the satisfaction you’d feel presenting a CD of all owls, . . . You’d have to have your favorite, then one that’s all screechies cooing to each other across a crowded pasture–those two you could probably collect in good weather, but you might have to suffer a bit for the great horned and great grey. I’m not too familiar with the saw whet’s mating calls, but I know they favor better weather and tend to fly south-ish in the winter, so maybe that one might not be so painful…
Which one’s the “Who-cooks-for-you?-Who?-Who?” owl? Is that your barred?
Anyway, living in hope (of that CD!)

Melis

P.S. : remember, foxes also mate when the owls do–and unless I’m quite wrong, they have a much larger fan club out there than the coyote, due to being less harmful, much less aggressive toward humans and their animals, and just SO darned cute. In fact, when spending time in the wild, the biggest problem with foxes is often getting them to leave you alone and go back to acting like wild animals (goofy things). But they make really interesting yammering and whining noises when ‘in the mood’. Woud certainly liven up a Winter recording. In fact foxes and barn owls together would sound like the sound track to a Hieronymus Bosch painting-probably not the best combo!-M

I ordered my *original* iPhone replacement battery from Hong Kong on eBay for under $4 (but be ready to wait 3 weeks or more for it to arrive). The replacement procedure was a lot easier than I thought it would be. And, yes, the hardest part *was* removing the cover.