The stellar stay and gray fox and white tailed deer were most surprising Tri me. I have not heard deer make that sound, or at least not connected it with deer.  I have geared Eastern Screech owls, Great hotness and Barred owls, though the latter two not recently. The screech owl I identified last October with the help of Merlin, on the second try. It was the tremelo call and was very puzzling to me. The first time I heard it Merlin couldn’t identify it , but about a month later, heard it again and was able to identify.  Not at all screechy!  A night bird I’ve been hearing frequently is the Chuck Will’s Widow. Some of the rooter owls I would have thought could be frogs before this course.

The white-tailed deer sounds surprised me the most.  I had never heard their vocalizations before.  Some of the other mammal sounds like the raccoon and bobcat surprised me as well; I guessed that those sounds were not owls, but I could not identify them.

I have heard the Great Horned Owl and the Eastern Screech Owl in our neighborhood at night.  We saw the Great Horned Owl sitting in one of the trees in our yard a few nights.  I never saw the Eastern Screech Owl, though.

Nancy in Wichita, Kansas

These recordings wouldn’t play, and have “error” message in the play bar. Applies to a couple of other places in the course as well

oops take that back - after I’d posted here I went back and they’re ok now, don’t know what that was, no vpn etc

I was conducting a late winter/early spring frog survey in the woods after dark the first time I heard the cackle of the Barred Owl. At the time I didn't know who was cackling so near me. Scared the bejeebers out of me.

There are few things, in my experience, more maddening than crawling into one's sleeping bag for a good night's sleep after a long day of backpacking, only for some invisible hand to flip the switch and turn on the Eastern Whip-poor-will. "Whip-poor-WILL! Whip-poor-WILL! Whip-poor-WILL! Whip-poor-WILL! Whip-poor-WILL! Whip-poor-WILL! Whip-poor-WILL! Whip-poor-WILL! Whip-poor-WILL!" Would somebody PLEASE turn that infernal bird off! Once it gets started, it Never. Shuts. Up. They don't call 'em nightjars for nuthin'!

To my ear the Southern Boobook sounds as though he's saying, "Cu-ckoo! Cu-ckoo!" The Spectacled Owl sounds a bit like the Barred Owl cackle. The vocalizations of the Short-eared Owl, the Burrowing Owl, and the Sooty Owl sound the least owl-like in quality to me.

The white tailed deer sound surprised me the most.

I have heard Great Horned Owls, Eastern Screech Owls and Eastern Whip-Poor-Will at night, not to mention coyotes yipping and yowling.

I am certainly glad not to be hearing the barn owls hiss.  That is one of the spookiest sounds!

I live near barred owls, but have never heard the duet. I'll be going out at dusk in the next few months to listen for their calls.

I thought some of the whip-poor-will sounds were going to be owls and I was very surprised the Sooty Owl’s call was that of an owl, I expected it to be an insect or something.

Sound doesn’t load for Night sounds

Got all but the sooty (not the specific types, but if they were owls), so many fun noises in the night!

The deer sound surprised me the most. I see them often, but don't recall hearing them. I tend to hear the eastern screech owl the most.

It would be great to have more European species here please!

The Eurasian pygmy owl surprised me, but my biggest learning was like others below: owls usually do not sound like our stereotypical' to whit to whoo'! Not at all. Their calls do not seem to be very much related to each other; unlike the other characteristics the course demonstrates.

The mammals were the most surprising ... deer, bobcat, raccoon, fox.

It is honestly amazing how owls can sound anything un-owl-like in nature. Plus, some of the other animals at night sound even spookier than they do!

I also don't think I ever heard a White-tailed Deer barking before, as I know other species are famous for producing some otherworldly sounds.

The night time can be spooky! Thanks for helping us identify who is out there. We think of deer and bobcats being asleep at night and it's a reminder that they are still awake. This was fun.

A couple of things surprised me the most: 1) Not recognizing birds that say their names, i.e., Southern Boobook and Eastern Whip-poor-will (we have the Common Poorwill in my area), and 2) Discovering birds and animals that are said to be in my county or nearby areas, but I have never seen, much less heard, i.e., Common Raccoon, Common Gray Fox, and Steller’s Jay. I checked eBird, but there have been no local sightings reported of Steller’s Jay, though the jay has been reported in surrounding counties.

I think the deer surprised me the most; I did not know they made that sound! The Sooty Owl threw me off the most. Only because of this course was I able to guess some of the species correctly, like the Southern Boobook and Eastern Screech-Owl, and could tell a couple of them weren't owls. That was fun! Where I live in Idaho, we typically hear Western Screech-Owls with an occasional Great Horned Owl.

I'd say the deer surprised me the most from the clips. Also the saw whet owl. I have to start paying attention more to what owls live here in Kentucky. It'd be fun to be able to identify them.

Many owl sounds did surprise me and some made me laugh. Although I did not always identify an owl call; I was able to identify all but 2 animal calls. For me, of the owl calls, here are some of my highlights:  Spotted Owl sounded like a small barking dog; Eastern Screech Owl like a bad vibrato; Estern Barn Owl like a Red-Shouldered Hawk with a bad cold; Sooty Owl sounded like a wind-up toy. My favorite is the Barred Owl duet - very romantic.

The Barred Owls' duo sound was crazy. Their song is so well synchronized by both the male and the female, and it is very different from the other ones that I've heard in this course. I would love to hear it one day. Also, the Barn Owl's song is one of the weirdest for me, even though i've heard it many times already.

Somewhat better with Nort American owls than the others. Still need far more practice. Would be good if when I redo the sounds above that they would be shuffled so not in the same order

As at least one other person noted below, the mammal sounds were surprising

It was a humbling exercise as an urban dweller, I found it difficult to recognize most species. I did recognize some owls and made a good guess at identifying non-owl species but not necessarily correctly identifying the species. I was most confident identifying the pair of Barred owls. It is a sound that we hear regularly in our neighborhood. It was interesting to know that their call is to mark their territory. We have yet to hear them this year.

I have often mistaken a raccoon for an owl. Also, Night Herons make a weird sound, I'd love to compare it to the owl sounds. The bobcat is one I've heard at home, but had absolutely no idea what was making it! So thank you for including that! And growing up, I always called the Barn Owl a "screech owl" because of the sound it makes, and you've clarified that the Western Screech Owl (which I've also heard and mistook for a pygmy) is one I hear on occasion. Most frequently I hear Great Horned Owls (nightly) and Barn Owls (less frequently, but often).

Why do all 23 sounds have “error” so I can’t hear them?

What a fun exercise! I was surprised at the Sooty Owl, the Barn Owl, and the Short-eared Owl. Also the raccoon and the deer— I didn’t know they sounded like that! The only owl I’ve heard in our Seattle-area yard is the Barred Owl, so I recognized it. And the Steller’s Jay at the end of the exercise is a familiar sound in the neighborhood. :-)