Can anyone identify this call?

For the past week or so, I've been hearing a strange call like nothing I've ever heard before in my garden (we live right next to a small woodland).

My first thoughts that it was an owl, but I thought it was unusual I was hearing it throughout the day. 

I couldn't get a good recording of it for a long time, as the call is so elusive that you could wait 5 minutes or have to wait until the next day to hear the call again. I finally managed to get one!

I attached the .mp3 file to see if anyone can tell me what kind of bird/animal it might be. It's the very last call at the very last section of the audio clip from about 6 seconds to 9. Shame it's not as loud in the audio as it is in real life!

  • The initial part of the clip does sound like crows calling so maybe Dave is on to something, Crows can make some weird sounds although I've never heard the calls in the latter part of the clip. However, I found this recording on xeno-canto which is described as an imitation call.

    Jorge Leitão, XC419563. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/419563.

    Best I can do

  • Evening both,

    I'm still not sure it's crows, as the crows generally are background noise and entirely separate from the last part of the call.
    It's the call at the very end of it that still have me quite entirely stumped, and I'm very unsure if it's an imitation or not. It'd been going on for days, but nothing like I've heard coming from a crow which we've had living in our woodland for many many years.

    Thank you though, I'm still searching for an answer!
  • It's always frustrating when you can't get to the bottom of unusual calls. Good luck with your endeavours and please let us know if you get an answer.