Even smaller than a Little Owl, the Scops Owl is a delightful species which, although very well camouflaged as with all owls, can sometimes be found in the Quinta's gardens. It's call is unique, sounding like an asdic machine in a 2nd WW submarine movie, regular as clockwork every 3-4 seconds. As the male and female call at different pitches - and call one after another -  this can be entertaining, and this is especially so when the young chime in as well as they each call at a different pitch also, so on occasion one can end up with a beautifully presented "song" of 4 or 5 different notes one after another with perfect timing, continuing on occasion for 20 minutes or so.

Their call is very similar to a Midwife Toad so care is needed if recording from call alone; however, toads very rarely climb trees ... I once had one here who worked a good scam by calling from the LNB unit of a satellite dish; he was little larger than the LNB unit itself, but definitely sounded 6 foot tall as his call was magnified a hundred-fold by the satelite dish ...

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