a neighbor was in our driveway with his camera last night as we returned home from the wilson county fair. he informed us that we are the proud recipients of barn owl visits. it seems they have nested in our huge maple tree that has lots of welcoming cavities for various sorts of critters but we were oblivious to it. they are returning each night presumably to hunt and maybe they are even there in the daytime-that remains to be discovered. now we know that the very loud cicada buzzing wasn't that at all but one of the owls (the young ones?) and tonight i can tell that the "frog croaking" sound is apparently a more mature parent. we have seen 2 at one time now. our question....is this a rare event to have such visitors? i just wish we'd have realized what these sounds were earlier so we could perhaps have seen the owlets when they were smaller. anyway it's a real treat to see them nightly now. we're in watertown, in south east wilson county. jan donaldson