Environmental Engineer hears calling and responding screams witnessed in Mason County, Washington

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On Monday night (actually early Tues. morning July 3, 2001) I was performing some nighttime noise monitoring at a residence outside of Shelton, Washington. I monitored from 2:30 am to 4:30 am. There are a few residences where I was, but the area is surrounded by Simpson timber land. The Washington State Penitentary is closeby. It was perfect noise monitoring conditions, clear night with no winds at all (extremely quiet). Right when I started my measurement I heard coyotes from the direction of the driveway, off in the distance. A few dogs in the distance barked at the howls. I then heard some different animals. I heard 2 or 3 screams from one location and a single scream in response from further north. These screams seemed to be communicating to each other. It lasted about 30 seconds or so. The dogs in the distance continued to bark, although the 2 dogs in the yard with me did not. I was really wondering what animal it could have been. I would describe coyote howls as an owwwoooooooo ...