OWLS & OTHER SOUNDS BEFORE DAWN

We've been getting up really early, about an hour before dawn, and sitting on the porch with a cup of tea or coffee. The morning sounds are wonderful. Crickets abound.  Some days it's been too cold for Katydids, but others, we'll heard one, very slowly "KT".  They are temperature sensitive and the calls get slower and slower as it gets colder.  The Katydids die at the frost.  

Apparently, you can tell the temperature by counting the calls per minute (I'm not sure if that means syllables or the whole call & I can't find it anywhere -- ex: if it is cold, you will hear, "Kay....... Ty"  or sometimes just the "Kay" part!)  Anyway, here is the formula presented by the Hilton Pond Center, York, S.Carolina, http://www.hiltonpond.org/thisweek010901.html
(I like the closing comment <grin>)

• T=(C+161)/3, with T being the Temperature and C the number of calls per minute. This won't work in winter, of course, since all the stridulating katydids will be dead, so unless you're a classroom teacher helping students with math skills, maybe it would just be easier to buy a new thermometer.   
  

I think we have the Common True Katydids here.  They like oak trees (which makes our neighborhood a good habitat!)

Several days ago we heard two great horned owls calling to each other. The next day we heard two screech owls alternating calls. The day after that, we heard a barred owl across the pond, and a bit later also heard a screech owl from the other side of the pond.

The owls seem to be out and calling just a bit after five which is about an hour before sunrise. Later, the great blue heron squawks. Yesterday, we heard the Heron three times from the dam end of the pond, and once from upstream further. 

Morning is not quiet around here!