Karen,

Your nocturnal calling critter sounds like it might be a flying
squirrel. I heard one for my first time at a friend's house, also in
Medina Co. Everything about your description matches what I heard. Very
mournful and ventriloquistic. Anybody know of a good sound file link so
that we might all learn to recognize this one?
Thanks.

Craig Rieker
Parma OH

----- Original Message -----
From: "KG" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 2:56 PM
Subject: [Ohio-birds] I.D. Night Caller?


> At my mother's house in southwest Medina county last night I heard a
> bird call I could not identify. Mom says it has been calling for a
> week or more -- only after dark and until very late at night (at least
> until she finally falls asleep). She does not hear it during daylight
> hours. It is a lone bird, none of its calls are returned. In 31 years
> living there she has never heard anything similar. The call itself is
> a single plaintive descending shriek... 8-12 seconds apart, very loud,
> fairly clear. I don't believe it was an owl -- certainly none I'm
> familiar with. Its quality reminded me of a gull call, but much
> louder. I wonder if it could be some sort of misplaced domestic fowl.
> The calls are louder and softer, to suggest the caller is facing
> sometimes away and sometimes toward us. It seems to be emanating from
> approximately the same area every night, about 1/8 mile away, at a
> property that currently is unoccupied. Probably overgrown grassy and
> shrubby area with saplings --
> a pond and dense woods are nearby.
>
> Any ideas?

> Karen Gray
> Summit County - Copley Twp

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]