I can think of no better way to start off the new year than to walk out the front door in the pre-dawn darkness and hear two different owl species calling. That is what happened to me on January 1,2009, at my home in Phoenix. In the distance, I heardthe faint bouncing ball-like call of a Western Screech-Owl, a small owl occasionally found in urban areas around the city. From the opposite direction came the low hooting call of a Great Horned Owl, a fairly common resident of our neighborhood. I sometimes hear the pair, but I rarely hear both at the same time, as I did that morning.