[mou] Lake County Road 2

[Alt, Mark]

Steve Wilson and a group of Massachusetts birders and I headed north =
from the owl symposium Saturday night and were treated to a grand =
display of Northern Lights, which then dimmed and faded, outshown by a =
waxing 3/4 moon of canary yellow. A near windless night gave us =
excellent chances for hearing owls, but we had only one vocalization, a =
Boreal Owl female contact call. We did not see her, so we are not =
certain, so list it as you see fit, I will list it as "probable".  The =
highlight of the evening was a Lynx seen alongside the road. This cat =
leaped and twisted improbably fast and high to clear the roadside snow =
and disappear immediately into the thick boreal forest. As we perused =
the huge tracks it made bounding away, we considered ourselves very =
fortunate indeed. 3 of our party of 5 saw the cat very well from 75 feet =
in the car headlights. As we then decompressed under the Aurora =
Borealis, soaking a bright star-spangled sky only Carl Sagan could =
enumerate, we heard the cat vocalizing  from about 100 feet away. Then =
two cats, one very distant and beyond the first cat. This vocalization =
is unlike anything I have heard in the wild. It sounds like an agonistic =
female human scream.  The duration of each "wail" lasted a second or =
two, starting high and shrill then dropping in tone and volume to a =
gargling guttural growl. The next phrase was immediately started. It =
sounded like the Lynx ran out of air with each phrase, as it tailed off =
and turned into a gargling growl. Phonetically, it is something like =
"Eeowwrr......Eeowwrrr....Oahhrrr...etc. I heard the phrases in groups =
of three to ten. It called constantly for between 15 and 20 minutes. The =
longest it was silent in this period of time was about 30 seconds. The =
other cat was heard for about 5 seconds, from a distance, how far I am =
not sure. It did not appear to be an echo, it was not syncopated to the =
other cat's calls. The calls as they proceeded in a group of phrases =
would grow more drawn out and end more gutturally. They would seem to be =
reduced in volume as well as they progressed in the group of phrases. =
Steve Lock, a biologist working with these cats in this region, was =
thrilled to hear the event described, and supposes we heard the extended =
bark call that is given for the 2-3 week period each year they are =
breeding. He was not sure if it was female or male, but was going to =
attempt to track the animal and determine if it is a collared cat and if =
so, add more details to the story. Steve has never heard this call live =
but has read about it. Those of you that wish to hear this, directions =
to the site are simple. Drive north on Hwy 2 from Two Harbors till a =
Lynx jumps in front of you. Stop and listen there. Good Luck. Good =
Birding.