Well, that’s certainly not how it is pronounced.
You in particular may be interested to know “Mae Hong Son” roughly translates to “Place of Teaching Elephants,” and as I recall, the province started life as an elephant-training camp for the prince of Chiang Mai in the mid-19th century.
With cheese, of course. Haven’t you heard of “owl gratin”?
My youngest sibling has been living and working in Chiang Mai for over ten years, primarily with the ICTJ (International Center for Transitional Justice) Burma Project. That is certainly one of the most fascinating places on the planet, and after just one visit I can’t wait to return. I’m hooked on birding (thanks Mom!), and could just kick myself for not bringing my binoculars and log book the first time. I don’t recall seeing any owls, but there was certainly no shortage of feathered critters, many of whom are indiginous to that triangular region bordering Burma, Thailand and China. Where are you now, Sam?
No, but I’ve been as boiled as an owl a time or two…
Dusk is when they wake up. My son an I were attacked by a Barn owl coming down off a mountain trail. We made the mistake of stopping to look at it. It was beautiful, all white with those big eyes that just look right into you.
All of a sudden it started dive bombing us and swooping over our heads. We started running and it gave up. They make quite a bit of noise when they are mad. It may have been a female guarding her nest?
I can die in peace (hopefully a good 60+ years from now)
Big Owls can be freaky as hell, I can see how they got associated with witches and devilry and all that.
A couple times at night I was up camping and all the sudden I heard a strange whooomp…whoomp sound. Then I saw glowing eyes jumping all over the place and the sounds got louder. Scared the shit out of me until it was past and I realized what it was.
They don’t fly with a normal smooth motion like little birds, they just kind of throw their wings out, grab a blob of air with each and hurl it downward giving themselves a little lurch upward which quickly turns into falling down again and using the wings again. There is nothing fluid or graceful about it and you just see a huge shadowy mass of undulating body with open razor beak and enormous flailing wings(plus the huge glowing fiery eyes of hell).
Bangkok, as per my location field. I think that was the only owl I ever saw up there. There was a distinct shortage of bird life in the area, as they’d all pretty much been shot and eaten.
This is what they do during mating season, surprisingly enough. It’s their way to impress the females. Apparently, it impresses human males as well (if the name Wolfman is gender-accurate) 
Didn’t know if you were still in Bankok; as people often move without updating their location on the SDMB. I did notice a lack f big birds, but there were lots of little tiny songbirds up in the hills when I was there. There were also a wide variety of eggs at the street stands, and some weren’t much bigger than a robin’s egg.
I found the owl. It turns out it was part of the background sound effects to EA Sports Active. Like a complete fool, I would go outside when the wife was playing EA Sports Active because I could hear the owl… yet once I went outside, the owl stopped calling.
Today, I had my finger on the mute button so that I could localize it better. Yeah, that pretty much ended my search.
Sorry to hear that! Maybe you could still take some of these tips and go on a owl spotting trip.
I saw a wild great horned owl right by San Jose airport very regularly, when I used to bike commute through there. It was awesome. 
Today, I wrapped a (different) great horned owl in a towel while a colleague ground down his beak and talons. Slightly different, but also awesome.
Nuts. Well, at least you discovered the source, and a wee tip o’ the cap to EA Sports for installing extremely convincing background sounds. I take it you are not esily fooled, JF, so chalk it up to scientific advancements in audio effects.
Hahaha…sorry for your disappointment.
A local owl (or owls) in my suburban neighborhood likes to perch on the top of the several of the houses near me that have extra high French Provincial roofs. The silhouette against the sky is quite obvious and striking. Once perched, it doesn’t like to go anywhere, it seems. I once watched for a good half hour hoping to see it launch an attack on some unsuspecting rodent and only got a couple of “ruffles” for my trouble.
I’m not easily faked out. There was more going on than just the sound effect. It was always around the same time each night. It was after I put the kids to bed (so that it was quiet enough for me to hear it). It was infrequent enough that I figured it wasn’t background noises. And finally, when we first moved in 5 years ago, I heard an owl one season.
I was really deflated when I was able to silence it mid-call with the mute button. I grew suspicious when I never heard it outside and how its calls didn’t seem to vary too much.
Heh. I’m sorry your owl was virtual. We have them in the woods behind our place. I’m so dense that when we first moved in, the neighbours asked if we could hear the owls, and I said ‘no’. I did hear funny dogs barking in the woods, though. Then one day, I realised the “barks” were in a very regular pattern, and dogs don’t seem to do that… it’s the classic “who cooks for you who cooks for youuuuuuu” call. When they’re close, they really do seem to “bark” it out, though.
I spent a long evening one night a few summers ago listening to owl sounds online, trying to identify the summer sound I hear. I think it’s juvenile owls. It’s a funny, almost metallic sound, one that starts quietly, ascends, then cuts off. It sort of sounds like a tool whining in the distance, but not quite. One day I’ll figure it out.
In Soviet Union, owls spot you!
We found a great horned owl’s nest in our neighborhood:
Slight hijack.
I live in Sydney and we have a thing called a Powerful Owl.
Standing 60cm ( 2 feet ) tall with a wingspan of 140cm ( 55 inches ) the bloody thing eats possums and fruitbats!
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
