From the book

“With an oh-so-familiar rhythm, the female delivers four deep, resonant hoots all on the same steady pitch, the first brief, the second wavering, followed by two more hoots, the first longer than the last: ho ho-ooo hooo hoo. Deeper, richer, and more mellow, like a distant foghorn, the male responds . . .”

In a little over two minutes, the male and female duet seven times. At first he leads, but by the end of the exchange, his lower frequency hoots follow her higher hoots. Hear also how the notes in her hoots are more segmented, the “ho-ooo,” for example, more of a h-o-o-oo.

From the book

“Listen also for the hair-raising screeches of hungry young owls in the night . . .”

Here is that hair-raising screech by the hungry young great horned owl, the mystery sound of the night that has so many people wondering about its source. One youngster calls loudly in the foreground, and at least one more calls in the background.