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Hello, Maeve; Yours is an interesting question. From my experience, owls are rather unpredictable. Sometimes they respond vocally right away - say within minutes. Sometimes they respond silently - as in popping up from a roost hole or flying in (silently) right away. If that's the case, they can easily go unnoticed. Other times they will remain silent and motionless for a longer period of time - say hours. I've been camping, when I've given an owl hoot, just for the hoot of it. Nothing. Then hours later, there's be a chorus of owls. They were there all right. Just laying low for whatever reason. Bottom line: You never know until you know for sure. Rich Guthrie New Baltimore, The (not now) Greene County, New York [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: Vermont Birds [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of - Maeve Kim Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 8:13 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [VTBIRD] help needed with VBBA owls Hi, all - I can't believe there aren't owls in my VBBA block, which has a nicely diverse mixture of small town, developed rural areas, woods, wetlands, fields and meadows - but several trips at various times of year with the VBBA tape have yielded nothing in the way of response. I've gone out at night in March and April and once in December. (The December trip wasn't in the prime owl-hooting time, but I decided to give it a try.) I've followed the VBBA protocol but I'm wondering if the owls need more time between humans walking around and the beginning of the taped noises. Do successful owl prowlers hide in blinds? crouch in the undergrowth? Are the owls more likely to respond at either end of the night rather than at the darkest times, or vice versa? I did get a surprising and exciting screech owl response right from a tree in my own back yard, by the way, when I was testing the tape levels before leaving for one of my trips! Thanks in advance for any advice - Maeve Kim, Jericho Center