128 replies to this topic

[Jay_Reynolds_Freeman]

I was once observing alone at a site in the San Francisco Peninsula foothills when a couple of coyotes nearby started howling. (It sounded as if there were dozens of them, which meant that there may have been as many as two.) Anxious to join in the chorus, I immediately howled back.

 

There was dead silence.

 

I have rarely been so mortified, before or since.

 

 

Clear sky ...

[Don W]

You wouldn’t believe the strange noises cows make at night!

[desertstars]

I hear coyotes so often, here in Tucson, that they sound normal to me. I'm actually a bit disappointed if I spend a night out with a telescope and don't  hear them. 

 

Baby great horned owls are another matter. The sound they make is simply unnerving. Surely no living thing could make such a sound. But - owls it is.

 

And just once when I was out in a canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains (they make a fine way to block the lights of Tucson  ) I heard the cry of a mountain lion. Not sure I want to hear it again, out there alone in the dark. 

[revans]

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.

 

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I spent some time in Texas when I was young and we used to see these from time to time.  I remember going out in our yard to turn the hose on. The spigot was between a couple of large rose bushes.  When I bent down to turn the spigot on, one of these "bird spiders" as we called them, found its way from the bush onto my leg.  Worse in my opinion were the smaller scorpions that would gather around a dripping faucet in the house or find their way into your bedding...  but you wouldn't see one outside unless you lifted up the right flat rock. 

 

Rick

[25585]

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.

 

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Arachnophobia triggered 

[25585]

Before the wildlife slaughtering psychopaths got the cull green light, I used to hear badgers, especially young adults screaming at night. Now its only three types of owls and the odd fox barking. Two-legged night creatures are the only fauna to be scared of, unless I'm on Exmoor, where there is a beast!

[Jon Isaacs]

It was a dark and storm-less night..

 

My favorite observing sites are within a few miles of the US-Mexico border in a region used by smugglers of various types.

 

One night a number of years ago , about midnight, my wife was asleep in the motor home and I was observing in peace.  

 

Then I heard a periodic russling of the brush. It sounded like someone was trying to sneak up on me. It continued and stopped observing, my mind alert and afraid. I became more and more afraid. 

 

I finally went inside the motor home to get a large multi-cell flashlight. I scannrd the area but saw nothing but the subtle r russling  continued..

 

Finally I caught a glimpse of a large owl as it took flight.

 

It wasn't a loud screech that psyched me out, it was the ever so subtle sounds in the brush that had me in fear.  

 

Tarantulas are always scary. When I was about 14, myvl brother and I shared a bathroom. One evening, I got in the shower only to find my beloved brother had put a tarantula in there...

 

I don't think I took a shower for month.. it turned out to be dead but I came flying out of there none the less.

 

Jon

[ABQJeff]

I was once observing alone at a site in the San Francisco Peninsula foothills when a couple of coyotes nearby started howling. (It sounded as if there were dozens of them, which meant that there may have been as many as two.) Anxious to join in the chorus, I immediately howled back.

 

There was dead silence.

 

I have rarely been so mortified, before or since.

 

 

Clear sky ...

They can be a tough crowd...

[ABQJeff]

I hear coyotes every night I am out at home, but not at all at dark site (no food).   We have standard critters at home (rattlesnakes, raccoons, skunks, black bears, bobcats, mountain lions), fortunately my dark site (being next to a lava field) doesn't have the food source for the fauna.  It is still and quiet.

 

At my dark site, the cows from a distant ranch are the scariest sounds I hear (those grunts!), the low flying mexican free tail bats the most perturbing (I have felt the wind from their wings as they eat the insects attracted to my red headlamp).   But most dangerous are the elk on the roads at 3-5 am.

 

The biggest jump scare i have had is from a stray dog at home.  I was working on my telescope at night in the garage with red headlamp on and I hear this loud growl from behind me.  I turn to see a Weimaraner staring at me growling.  I yelled at it to go home, it barked but the minute I stepped toward it, it ran away.

[Don W]

Just remembered. In Australia in 2005 we were 250 miles NW of Sydney. Just after dark we heard some blood curdling screams and screeching. I was shocked at the apparent violence taking place nearby. Asked one of our Aussie mates what it was. He answered that it was koala mating season and the sounds were from males fighting!

[JayinUT]

Yes, coyotes howl almost every time I am at one of my dark sites. I howl back. One night this year in January if I remember right,  I howled and one growled back in the dark. I guess she/he didn't like my way off tone howl. 

[Amazed]

Cool stories everyone of them.

[mountain monk]

We had four kinds of owl where I lived in Grand Teton NP, great gray, great horn, boreal, and saw whet—my favorite. They sound just like a metronome. Lots of coyotes, foxes, badgers, etc. And cougars—they sound just like an alley cat in a fight. The best my far were howling wolves—I could listen to them for hours.

 

When I lived on a remote ranch east of Nogales I would sometimes visit the Coronado National Monument at the southern end of the Huachuca Range.. Once when I was there a tarantula crawled in the front door. A female ranger went over and adroitly picked in up by the waist, then walked out and set it a ragged mesquite. I had followed her and said how impressed I was. She said “Come on, if a girl can do it.” And pointed at the spider. I checked my testosterone count and picked it up by the waist. It wiggled its legs, but nothing happened, so I put it back on the tree. She smiled.

 

Noisy animals? Nothing compares to a tiger. At a lodge on the border of Nepal and India they would sometimes put a dead water buffalo out as bait about thirty feet from a blind where lodgers were lined up waiting. When a tiger arrived it would roar. The ground would vibrate—I kid you not. Then it would rip off a chunk of buffalo haunch the size of a roast, swallow it and roar again. We did not make a peep.

 

Dark, clear, calm skies.

 

Jack

[CrazyPanda]

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. 

Same. Lived in NH my whole life and haven't heard a Whip-poor-will in ages. My dad used to point them out when I was a kid.

 

These days the unique bird songs I hear are at night or dusk are nighthawks, loons, veeries and bard owls.

Edited by CrazyPanda, 13 May 2025 - 10:24 PM.

[scottinash]

Just a few weeks ago I was out observing in my backyard and caught, out of the corner of my eye, a large shadow very quietly pass not far above my head blocking out the stars. Cold chills immediately ran up my spine as I related the unexpected experience with Mothman, which I had seen the movie advertised on a streaming service a few days prior.   I scanned my flashlight around and two shinning eyes were peering from a nearby tree.  Yes, thank god, it was a lovely owl and not Mothman...whew!   The bright light and overdose of adrenaline kind of messed up the rest of the nights viewing plans; I packed it in.

 

AKA  “The sound of silence”

Edited by scottinash, 14 May 2025 - 06:02 AM.

[izar187]

Coyotes are always welcome to sing, when I'm out with the night sky.

Some of the rural sites I use are on a long approach to a regional airport.

When certain size corporate jets power down as they come in, that ringing

pitch change often gets them howling, then answered from miles around.

So do some of the trains at night, sounding off as they approach one of the small towns.

Heard them do it so often over the years, that I always pause and listen after both jets and trains at those sites.

 

Whip-poor-wills are magical, as long as they are not in a tree nearby.

As mentioned, they can go on for hours... and if too close, really whack the serenity.  : )

[johnpeter2]

After moving into the country a few years ago, I wondered if I was hearing the whinnying of horses at night.  I soon discovered the whinny sounds came from the Eastern Screech Owls!

 

John

[JoeBlow]

My dark sky location is in a rural area with plenty of cows, sheep, horses, ducks and some wild animals. So plenty of animal sounds throughout the night. However another thing I have to contend with is gun shots on some nights. We often have people on neighbouring properties hunting pigs, foxes and whatever else. On a few occasions the gun shots seem to travel towards my general location which can be a little hair raising...

Edited by JoeBlow, 14 May 2025 - 12:18 AM.

[PNW]

The spookiest sound I hear is the silent rustling of Owls when they strike their prey across the road.

[PJBilotta]

Hooting Western Screech Owls, mating raccoons, and howling coyote packs in a nearby park all make for a fascinating observing soundtrack in my near-urban Portland backyard. It's a city packed with urban wildlife, and lots of nighttime wild sounds.

I've never been more terrified, however, than when observing in dark sky fields in northern MN and WI. Never knew that whitetail deer have a rather terrifying warning call when they encounter you at 2 am in a farm field. Somewhere between a cough, honk, and cry - and LOUD. Scared the living bejeezus out of me the first couple of times it happened, and clearly just 10-20 yards away from me in the black if the night. I was pretty sure I was about to be eaten by some mythical Northwoods beast.

Edited by PJBilotta, 14 May 2025 - 12:27 AM.

[UP4014Fan]

Hooting Western Screech Owls, mating raccoons, and howling coyote packs in a nearby park all make for a fascinating observing soundtrack in my near-urban Portland backyard. It's a city packed with urban wildlife, and lots of nighttime wild sounds.

I've never been more terrified, however, than when observing in dark sky fields in northern MN and WI. Never knew that whitetail deer have a rather terrifying warning call when they encounter you at 2 am in a farm field. Somewhere between a cough, honk, and cry - and LOUD. Scared the living bejeezus out of me the first couple of times it happened, and clearly just 10-20 yards away from me in the black if the night. I was pretty sure I was about to be eaten by some mythical Northwoods beast.

We used to go fishing up around Rheinlander when I was a kid.  I just knew there was a Purple People Eater between the lodge and our cabin...

Edited by UP4014Fan, 14 May 2025 - 01:20 AM.

[Inkie]

I'm a little late to this, and I'm afraid my tale won't be about a living creature, except of course that I was experiencing it. 

 

About 50 years ago I worked at a mine assay office as a sampler.  Once each hour I was to run through the mill and take samples of the grind effluent from the ball mills and of the thickeners, plus a sample of the tailings.  I also went to the concentrate bin and took a sample.  I would take them all to the assay labs and process each sample.  All samples had to be dried in large ovens for about 20 minutes (they were kept at 350 deg 24/7), and then pulverized in a disk pulverizer.  On this occasion, it was my last sample and it had been a graveyard shift, so it would have been near 0600....and I would have been beat.  I took the various samples out of the ovens in aluminum trays and let them cool for a few minutes, and then took them to the pulverizer where each was dumped into the inlet and the one spinning heavy disk of about 10 inches diameter would make a find talcum-like powder of them.  I would have to remove the sample carefully from the bottom tray, dump it onto a thin rubberized mat, and then do a series of corner-folds so that the powder was made homogeneous for the assayers to take a measured sample from any part of the mass.  I was to clean the disks each time with a brush first and then with compressed air, bag the sample, label it, and then go on to the next sample.  The concentrate was last due to its inherent potential to contaminate the barer samples of ore grind and tailings which had far less concentrations of copper.  As it began to move through the disk grinder, suddenly a low howl started.  Then it raised in tone until it was a wail.  I can't say I panicked, but I was frantically looking around trying to identify the source.  The tone got both louder and more urgent, and it was all I could do to keep my poop together.  My heart was pounding, and then I realized the howl was coming from the pulverizer.  I shut if off quickly and the howl stopped.  I opened the retaining dog clamp and spread open the static disk on its hinge.  The concentrate still had too much moisture content and was gumming up the works.  The howl was from the slipping drive belt.  D'Oh!!  And phew!!  I left the disks apart for about five minutes and the adhered concentrate was then able to be put through the shallow grooves of the two disks when I restarted the machine. 

I have encountered bears (I give a loud low growl and they turn and run headlong into the bushes....they want no part of contact with humans or whatever the heck I am), and last December I had a mountain lion (cougar in my town) scream at me twice.  Blood curdling howl almost like a banshee that seemed to fill the entire woods about 20 yards away.  But I had driven 30 minutes to get to the site and I was darned if I was going to cede my ground to a big cat. It never got close...as far as I know. 

Edited by Inkie, 14 May 2025 - 03:21 AM.

[JoeFaz]

I hear coyotes almost every night. Often they're quite close to me. I've gotten used to them and they don't bother me. We get all sorts of other critters, it's the skunk that I really don't want near me. A black bear has come quite close to the house at night, but rarely when I'm observing. One night after the bear had been around, I started bringing stuff out and heard it huffing and puffing in the dark not to far away, and immediately turned around and decided maybe I wouldn't observe that night.

 

There's also something out there occasionally that makes a strange, almost whining, sound that I've never been able to put my finger on. That one's creepy just because I don't know what it is. It sounds like a small mammal anyway, so probably just a noise I'm unfamiliar with from an animal that I am familiar with.

[DSO Viewer AZ]

When I first started going to dark sky locations I found myself at a location called Alamo Lake in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. Set up a tent, got the scope set up and dialed in, wonderful temps, and crystal clear skies. Absolutely gorgeous. The sun went down and off to work I went, enjoying the ability to visually view any target I wanted to find. About  10-11 pm I am at the eyepiece and it was so quiet you could literally hear a pin drop. I was very concerned about snakes, scorpions, and spiders, having not been to such a place before and still working through the fear of the dark phase of the hobby. Using my red flashlight every five to ten minutes looking for anything moving on the ground. Nothing. Seemed everyone was asleep. I finally settled in and relaxed a bit when all of a sudden the most horrendous sound I have ever heard before or since with a whaaah, whaaah…. Whaaaaaah (closest way I can think to spell the sound), it sounded like it was right behind me, I jumped so hard I fell off my observing chair, stumbling in the dark, darn near twisting my ankle. Thinking for sure some unknown monster was about to make me a midnight snack! Again it sounds off, sounding like it was just a foot or two from me. In sheer terror I pulled my flashlight and search around me, adrenaline pumping out of control…… nothing. After a minute or two I could hear something heavy walking nearby. I mustered all the bravery I could and walked a few feet in its direction with red flashlight scanning in every direction. Feeling like I was in every bad horror movie ever. When again only slightly closer I hear it again. Three whaaahs. Again causing me to jump right out of my skin. When I caught it with the flashlight… a donkey! Yes, a wild donkey, turns out they are wild have have been there since the Spanish came through the area hundreds of years prior and are still calling the area home. I laughed for some time, and still brings a smile to my face thinking about it. I returned to Alamo Lake for years and still one of my favorite places. And hearing them in the middle of the night always makes me jump, then laugh out loud. They like to come check out campers at night, almost never see them during the day. When they really get going you will hear the Bass fishermen sleeping in there boats yell at them in the middle of the night…..”awwww shuuut uuup”. I guess fisherman are not quite as spooked. 

[Monel76]

Owls are beautiful, there is one that comes to visit me every now and then, it sits on a post on my fence a few meter from me and stares at me for a few seconds. As soon as it realizes that I have seen it, it flyes away in complete silence. The strangest noise I hear at night is roe deers in love… They makes a sound similar to the barking of a big dog but truncated something like "BAH! BAH! BAH!".The problem is that is very loud and I every time s**t my pants