any owl is my fave, but sorry i don't know of an website. i did get the most awesome cd for bird calls off amazon.com. it has more recordings of one bird than i ever heard and a booklet with the cd. 2 cd set. i think it is sibley, but i would have to look. note- finally found out what the screech was on the treeline at night. been trying to figure it out for 10 years until the cd-great horned.

The Northern spotted owl is a western species; specifically of the Pacific Northwest old growth forest.

In PA you would have the Barred owl, which I believe is endangered in PA.

Here is a link that might be useful: Barred owl

Cornell doesn't have a sound file either? Hmm...

Owls are way cool. They are like hummers..a bird in their own class to me.

correction on the bird id cd- it is stokes.

Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs: Eastern Region (Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs)
by Lang Elliot (Narrator), Donald Stokes, Lillian Stokes

comes as a 3 cd set with booklet.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1570424837/ref=ed_oe_a/103-5345722-4343056?v=glance&s=books&st=*

Here is a link that might be useful: barn owl release program, yeah!!!!!!!!!

owl fanatic here guilty as charged. I have the Stokes CDs and have found them to be helpful.

I am eagerly awaiting the call of the screech owl any night now...hope they're still around....

woodviolet- the weather is definitely screech owl season here. and, we were being quietly serenaded by one just a couple nights ago. i do love their little sound.
for years i wondered what the screech in the treeline was at night everywhere i go. 15+ years later- the cd answered it for me- great horned. i knew their hoot, but not this othere sound. i recognized it when it played though. oops, posted that part already and added 5 years to the timeframe.

fairy_toadmother, we heard a screech owl last year around this time, I absolutely love the sound! I'm really hoping to hear one soon.
I've heard great horneds do their typical WHO WHO WHOO, but that's it. I'll have to pay more attention to see if I can hear any of their other sounds. Fun isn't it?
Soon I'll be up in the mountains and that's almost a guarantee to hear a Barred, can't wait!

there is something i have noticed where i work ( a wooded area). in the northern section, i hear more barred. in the southern section, i mostly hear great horned. that is the furthest i went with this. i should have kept track of the times of the year for each. and, it isn't exactly the time of day, which would seem obvious, because i have been out early and at times with the need of a strong flashlight. i am wondering if the barred prefers to be near the edges of the woods more than the gho. there are more openings inthe northern section.
i had the pleasure one night to watch a gho from the office window while it hooted in the treetop of a half dead tree. it was cool how it would lean in to its whoooooo!

I had a Great Horned Owl hoo all nite last night on the farm. I was so excited!!!! It was out there for hours!!

fairy-toadmother: Barred owls, in my area, just like WOODS.
Deep woods, open woods, matters not to them in this area. They are tuned up NOW, in my area, and will continue through 'til Spring. As soon as it's dusk, here, they begin calling.

you mean they wait until dusk??? that's unusual for a barred around here. dead giveaway if it is late afternoon and an owl is calling. i love listening to them going back and forth with each other- especially the "wilma flintstone imitation" on their last note. like, when she gets mad -oooooooooh

I went camping last weekend and had a concert courtesy of a pair of barred owls. Does one sex have a lower voice, or was that my imagination?

i wish i knew if it had anything to do with m/f, but it isn't your imagination unless mass hysteria has occured.

Hannah, I don't know if you found your sound file, but the Spotted Owls I've heard (we have the Mexican subspecies here, don't know if they vocalise differently than Northern) sound a lot like Barred Owl except for the female, which has a longish single whistle slurring upward in pitch. I do think a Spotted in PA would be quite a rarity though.

I didn't realise until now (thanks Natl Geo guide) that Barred and Spotted Owls hybridise (both Strix species).

-O- (in SE AZ where we have a mess of the little owl species)

fairy_toadmother: Barred Owls usually crank up right before dusk here--but from Fall on through 'til early Spring, when the love-bug bites them, they'll start a little earlier. They'll also keep at it a little longer after daylight (a.m.), when looking for love. I posted on another thread that I've called them up in the early morning hours of early Spring (while in full camo), and had two of them MATE on a tree limb right in front of me. Had it happen twice! (Felt a little like a voyeur...tee-hee.)

i read that thread, i am so jealous!

There was some great owl pics in the birdwatching forum.

Here is a link that might be useful: Great Horned Owl

thanks! i missed them. love those "what are you looking at" kinda pics!