128 replies to this topic

[revans]

A couple of nights ago I was out on the back deck doing some observing with my large mounted binoculars, looking for a few open clusters and a few Messier galaxies.   I'm in a suburban setting with adjacent woods.  As happens a couple of times a month when I'm observing deep sky objects for an hour or two before bed, I heard a non-human animal shriek that mimics the "cry of the banshee."  Turns out to be a night cry of a barn owl.  This was confirmed by my naturalist/gentleman farmer neighbor who raises a few chickens.  Apparently, the barn owl doesn't mind living far from his chickens and has been around for a couple of years now.   Unless you have heard a barn owl calling out at night, you would think you were dealing with some dangerous predatory quadruped like a Fisher Cat (which we also have around).... but the cry of the barn owl is very distinctive.  The only similar sound that I've heard was some years ago when I accidently stepped on my cat's tail. That roughly captures the idea of the sound...

 

Rick

[Polyphemos]

Barn owls are marvelous creatures; large, curious, ghostly pale, and silent. I often see them flying overhead on their way to their hunting grounds as I’m setting up just after sunset.

[UP4014Fan]

A couple of nights ago I was out on the back deck doing some observing with my large mounted binoculars, looking for a few open clusters and a few Messier galaxies.   I'm in a suburban setting with adjacent woods.  As happens a couple of times a month when I'm observing deep sky objects for an hour or two before bed, I heard a non-human animal shriek that mimics the "cry of the banshee."  Turns out to be a night cry of a barn owl.  This was confirmed by my naturalist/gentleman farmer neighbor who raises a few chickens.  Apparently, the barn owl doesn't mind living far from his chickens and has been around for a couple of years now.   Unless you have heard a barn owl calling out at night, you would think you were dealing with some dangerous predatory quadruped like a Fisher Cat (which we also have around).... but the cry of the barn owl is very distinctive.  The only similar sound that I've heard was when some years ago when I accidently stepped on my cat's tail. That roughly captures the idea...

 

Rick

Watch My Cousin Vinnie for a perfect illustration of that.  BTW, in that movie, the barn owl actually screeched on cue - it wasn't looped in.

For me, the eerie one is hearing one coyote howl, and then hearing all of them, plus all of the neighborhood dogs, take up the cry, at 0200, coming from all directions.  It's something I'd expect in farm country or out West, but not in suburban St. Louis.

[Wolfwatcher]

Stepping on a cat's tail...been there, done that. Absolutely terrifying sound. Now add that sound to the middle of a dark night....

 

Jett

[daveb2022]

I have one that passes overhead almost every night. This same owl has flown through my NVD FOV where I've got a quick closeup of feathers. 

I guess most strange animal noises don't bother me too much. One eyebrow raising event was hearing a low growling coming from outside my vehicle in camp that so loud it woke me up. In my mind I had visions of a grumpy Wolverine or Badger, but it was only a raccoon. Amazing the noise it made. Sounded like the cartoon Tasmanian Devil w/o the whirlwind noise. 

 

Right now the noisy bird that has returned is the Mocking Bird. Just won't stop and it's loud. Doesn't bother me though.

[auroraTDunn]

Sadly the only owls on or around my hill are Great Horned owls but they are out every night and I so love listening to the males and females hoot back and forth (they have distinct  differences in their hoot).

What gets me, or a local group of foxes with the oldest and one of his now grown kits who sound exactly like a bobcat. So I named dad, now a grandpa, Bobcat and his son, who keeps a den across the street and LOVES my neighbors chickens, Bobcat jr. But also with actual bobcats in the area, it can be disconcerting when I'm out observing, hear them and I can't tell the difference!

[Jhunt]

Not sure if you have a smart phone or not, but the Merlin Bird app will listen to bird calls for your location and tell you what's around you. Pretty useful app for IDing birds. 

[Dynan]

Setting up in the Deep South, the noises that bother me are the ones I DON'T hear...snakes, gators, large cats...

[rgk901]

well I've heard those owls while camping a few times they're crazy sounding!!!

the only thing that was more disturbing was a mountain lion screaming!!! at 3am was a bit terrifying to wake up to! thought someone was being murdered...

Edited by rgk901, 13 May 2025 - 12:18 PM.

[A Star Geezer]

WE have quite a few owl types here and aren't to loud when you hear one at a time. But when they have a who can make the loudest noise contest. Wow!One thing about living in the sticks is noise seems louder and travels further. The sun rise birds are really the loudest at 5am.  

[justfred]

A pack of coyotes decided to start howling ( more like screaming) the other night while I was on the back deck observing. They couldn't have been more than 30 yards away. I'm glad I had set my cup of coffee down just before the chorus began...

Fred

[Marcus1]

I was checking a polar alignment when a tree frog started up, having nothing to do I began to mimic it. We had an animated conversation back and forth for about twenty minutes and then the frog went silent. I thought the 6 foot rat snake had been listening in and had homed in on a midnight snack. Suddenly the loudest croak imaginable came from the side of the tripod and there it was a tiny frog puffing itself up to three times its natural size. I got a picture in red light.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Edited by Marcus1, 13 May 2025 - 01:14 PM.

[UP4014Fan]

Had an owl, who had been hooting from a tree nearby, swoop down about one foot over my head to catch mouse in my neighbors' yard.  It was the rustle of feathers directly over my head that came from seemingly nowhere that got to me.

[Marcus1]

WE have quite a few owl types here and aren't to loud when you hear one at a time. But when they have a who can make the loudest noise contest. Wow!One thing about living in the sticks is noise seems louder and travels further. The sun rise birds are really the loudest at 5am.

[russell23]

The red fox makes a jarring outburst scream sometimes. We have a lot of Coyotes that start howling through the creekbed below us and up our hill.

One night while observing a couple years ago I heard a huge ash tree come down across the road. We have a lot of dead ash due to the ash beetle. I could hear the tree snap and crash through surrounding trees and slam down. That was eerie!

Edited by russell23, 13 May 2025 - 01:25 PM.

[Marcus1]

We have those Eastern whip-poor-Will birds that start up at dark and continue nonstop until dawn. What a racket.

[UP4014Fan]

The footsteps of the three teenage boys who cut through my backyard at 0200.  Had a great conversation with them about:

 

• Telescopes and astrophotography;
• Trespassing;
• Curfew laws (it was clear they were ducking the local cop on his rounds - no, I didn't turn them in);
• And never, ever scaring the daylights out of some old guy who might be carrying (I don't, but that's not the point).

[GADify]

Love owls. 

 

Another sound that makes you think that someone is being murdered in the woods is raccoons, and spring is the perfect time for babies. Here is a pair I caught after hearing them for over an hour: 

 

 

 

Here's another one that screamed for hours. I went out with my spotlight expecting an owl and found this: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've heard coyotes, foxes, raccoons, owls, deer, and all manner of other critters including my favorite: peepers. And this is in NJ! 

 

I have a recording of three barred owls from the other night but it was a new moon and didn't get to see any of them. 

Edited by GADify, 13 May 2025 - 01:58 PM.

[GADify]

We have those Eastern whip-poor-Will birds that start up at dark and continue nonstop until dawn. What a racket.

My mom used to live in NH. We would hear them all the time in the '80s up until the '00s and then they started to disappear. Have not heard one in decades which makes me sad. 

[JayinUT]

Utah Uinta Mountains, fall 2014, up about 10,000 feet observing with 3 others and it was early in the morning. Suddenly a weird long shriek sounds off back in the woods and this happens three times freaking one of the newbie's out. It was a bull elk rounding up some female elk.  

 

I love Owls and hear and see them here in Utah's West Desert and in the mountains. One night in July in Utah's West Desert I was observing solitary when I heard a large rustle in the sage and underbrush.  It kept coming my way and after about 10 minutes I stopped observing when I heard a weird animal scream. So I grabbed my 1000 lumen flashlight and lit up the area where it came from about 20 yards away. It was a badger. I spent the next 25 minutes watching it dig and scream again and growl in my general direction. Eventually it moved off across the way and into the night. It didn't scare me, but I made sure I was aware of where it was. 

Edited by JayinUT, 13 May 2025 - 02:39 PM.

[Phil Young]

Last week, I was outside doing a polar alignment for two scopes and heard a loud snarl/scream.  I turned around, and my red headlamp picked up three pairs of bright red eyes looking back at me. Two raccoons scuffling under the pool deck and one under the bird feeder.  One evening I was going back into the house when I saw eyes staring back at me.  I opened the porch door and called "Kitty, do you want to come in?"  The eyes retreated under the deck.  I went into the house and the cat was sleeping on the sofa.

[UP4014Fan]

We have a skunk that I see on our Ring periodically.  Haven't encountered him/her, but I'm always a bit wary when I go out to check on the equipment.

[willyk44]

No owls in my yard that I know of, but I do get raccoons, possum, and a small bear once.  Thankfully I only saw the bear on the ring cam, not while I was in the yard.

[scout]

On Mount Diablo in the Fall we get giant tarantulas wandering around looking for mates at sunset. I don't want to know where they are after the sun goes down and just hope they don't crawl up my leg, although they're harmless to humans. They supposedly make a hissing sound but thankfully I haven't heard any in the darkness.

 

Edited by scout, 13 May 2025 - 04:11 PM.

[Kefka1138]

There are a few great horned owls that figured my neighborhood is fertile hunting grounds that I hear often. I'm sure they check me out more than I know, as I've witnessed them directly overhead on more than one occasion. Sneaky.