Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Sounds at Night



We live out in the country on the edge of a farm. I usually love the night time noises. Last night I kept hearing two owls calling to each other. It was very relaxing. Then I was awakened by MB crying.

I was having trouble sleeping after feeding MB. I was about to drift off when I heard an unearthly terrifying scream! It sounded like it was outside and didn't sound quite human, but it scared me. I was half asleep, so I thought that it was a person screaming. I jumped up and ran to look at everyone. I'm pretty sure that it was a raccoon!

Have you ever heard a raccoon screaming like that? When I lived in Tennessee with my grandparents, I slept with my window open and it was quite near to the ground. A raccoon came right up to the screen and let out this ungodly screaming and screeching one night. It sounded like it was in the bed with me. It was very horrible and scared the "you know what" out of me. That was the first time that I'd ever heard that particular night time noise. Fortunately, the raccoon last night must have been further away or it would have sounded even scarier.

In the Spring here , we usually hear the tree frogs in the evenings. We live nearby a swampy area, so it sounds like hundreds of the little frogs chirping away. We also hear the geese honking and cattle mooing from the farm. These are all relaxing noises to me.


5 comments:

Bar L. said...

I can't say that I've heard a raccoon scream, but I heard myself scream once when I stepped into my dark garage, flipped on the light, and was greeted by an entire family of FIVE huge raccoons eating our dog food (they ripped the bag open and had a party).

The eerier noise I hear in the suburbs is the sound of a pack of coyotes after they make a kill. I love the coyotes and am not afraid of them, but the sound they make when they've killed something is like loud, sinister laughing. It disturbing.

G. Shaun Jackson said...

Coyotes are evil sounding. We have large packs of them here in middle Tennessee. If they are close, it is especially bone chilling!

ChristyTN said...

Layla- Yikes! Five raccoons! I would've screamed too! Sometimes they can be not so nice. Mark has seen some rabid raccoons around here, so we always worry about that when we see one.

My brother-in-law in KY had several cats. One day he looked out to see the cats eating from their food bowl, but they had a friend. There was an o'possum right there eating with them from the same dish! They seemed to be friends with each other!

The noise of coyotes after making a kill must sound awful. I've never heard them.

Lilly Valley Farm - Wow! You have coyotes there? I never saw any around my home in TN, but we would have bear sightings since we were near the mountains. Once my grandmother was walking through woods on her property and came face to face with a young bear. She was so smart. She immediately picked up a big stick and screamed at the bear. He turned and ran away.

Do you guys have trouble with the coyotes bothering your pets or livestock?

G. Shaun Jackson said...

Christytn:

Yes, coyotes are all over Tennessee. We don't have that many problems with them due to the fact that we have 7 livestock guardian dogs who are constantly on patrol. To my knowledge, they have never been in an actual fight with the coyotes. If our dogs sense that coyotes are near they bark- and they have a very loud and booming voice! I guess they are intimidated away.

I have also heard people claim that mountain lions are returning to TN especially in middle and western areas. One person claimed to have found a boneyard (an area where mountain lions bring their kills to eat them- the bones are left- hence the name boneyard) Another person claims to have found a killed goat in the top of a tall tree! How did that happen?

I have heard bobcats around here and in southeast KY. They can really freak you out too.

Ray Van Horn, Jr. said...

all of this is ideal, totally! I heard coyotes in Kansas and Colorado and they are shrill shriekers for sure!