Could this be the call of a Boreal Owl ? (2 Viewers)

[Pierre990429]

Hello,

my name is Pierre and I live in Strasbourg (altitude 140m) , in the north-east of France (Alsace).
In my residential area, there are old trees. There is also a water-canal nearby.
For some months, I have been hearing, the evening, and mostly during the night (it can be all night), a strange call (like an owl of some kind). After some research, I found that *maybe* it could be a Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus). It's called "chouette de Tengmalm" in French.

I managed to record a call, and joined the file (it's a WMV video file, but you see nothing : it's dark! - recorded for 2 days, at 9 pm local time)

The recorded calls in the pages below seem to be similar :

http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Boreal_Owl

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Boreal_Owl/id
http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Aegolius&species=funereus


I wasn't able to see the bird...

According to the maps I've seen, this owl can be seen in the north-east of France.

What do you think?

Thank you,

Pierre

 

[KGS]

Don't think it is an Owl. Fox maybe?

 

[Pierre990429]

Hmmm, I can clearly hear how the sound is close and then immediately far from my house, and it's coming from the air. So it should be a bird?
There are no big animals where I live.

 

[pietrod]

Hi,

I think it's a fox, here you can hear a similar one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6NuhlibHsM
(minute 1:32, bark and scream section)

(for sure not a boreal owl)

best

pietro

 

[Pierre990429]

Well, I would never have thought about that. And it seems people in my town have already spotted foxes in their garden. (I didn't know)

I will continue to investigate.

Thank you, Pietro

 

[lou salomon]

it sounds like a bad recording of the song of a tawny owl to me (which in our region is the most common owl in towns anyway). otherwise it would be a flying fox

 

[Pierre990429]

Well, it could be a lyrebird imitating a crazy fox who thinks he's an owl ! o

I made the vid with a humble Canon IXUS 800is (2006).

I have attached the complete sound file (mp3 ripped from the video) : 22 seconds.
You hear the call at the beginning, and again (very faintly) one second or two before the end. The second call seems much farther than the first, that's what made me say it's a flying thing (that moves fast). There are dogs in my neighbourhood, wouldn't they react to a fox ?

but indeed : http://www.angelfire.com/ar2/thefoxden/sounds.html

Some mating calls from the foxes are weird.

I had ruled out the tawny owl (chouette hulotte in French), because the classic calls I found (like here http://www.godsownclay.com/TawnyOwls/Calls/tawnyowlcalls1.html ) weren't "matching".
But it sounds like a short "warble".

Here is an impressive boreal owl calls collection : http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Aegolius-funereus

 

[Pierre990429]

Well, my neighbour heard the same sound and saw a fox.

So it's a FOX :t: