Sunday, 6 February 2011

cries in the dark at night



I was so deep asleep that I took a while to work out where I was when I woke up. And then a little longer to realise that the screamings outside were foxes, doing what foxes do at this time of the year. By the time I'd got the PDA recording, they'd almost finished, but here's a little sample of the sound. Saounds vaguely like a tawny owl, doesn't it?
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9 comments:

  1. suzzymackenzie6 February 2011 at 07:52

    It is a bit owlish, perhaps more drawn out. Good old Reynard.

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  2. Anji6 February 2011 at 08:22

    It does sound owly. Thanks for making such an effort straight from sleep. We slept through an earthquake (very small) the other night

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  3. Jo6 February 2011 at 10:39

    We have them here, and for a few nights a couple of weeks ago, they were incessant and very loud. But a different noise - more a dog like howl, with some strangulation mixed in. I'm guessing there's a particular vocab foxes use to indicate their amatory intentions for the evening...

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  4. Melissa6 February 2011 at 19:39

    Hmm.........I remember hearing a similar sound one morning coming from the woods east of my house. At first I thought my neighbors, who had gone to work by then, got a new puppy, and it was crying out of loneliness, but the more I listened, the more it sounded like the screech of a raptor. I never even considered a fox, although I have seen gray foxes around here too.

    Melissa XX

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  5. MorningAJ7 February 2011 at 07:03

    Oddly we have more trouble with rowdy squirrels round here. Foxes do cross the area because I've seen footprints - but they don't congregate.

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  6. EtherowSi8 February 2011 at 09:52

    Fox cubs are born in March, gestation about 50 days.
    Hunting going on in south west cornwall as if nothing had changed.
    Plenty of tawny owl activity here since two sheep have come to live with us, I think the sheep have disturbed the field voles and the owls are well aware.

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  7. Dru Marland9 February 2011 at 07:28

    I'm used to the winter screaming of foes, but this was a new sound to me, which is why it took so long to identify- the first time, I swept the gardens with my big torch, and spotted a fox scarpering; presumably muttering all the while in fox about voyeurs...
    Thats an interesting connection, EtherowSi- are the voles thriving on sheep pellets, I wonder?

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  8. EtherowSi9 February 2011 at 12:03

    The voles have lived here happily undisturbed for years.
    The new arrivals (ovine) have been scampering up and down, enjoying tasty grass and common plantain, they were living in an area of mine waste previously. The voles don't know what's hit them.
    Fox fx at angelfire.com/ar2/thefoxden/sounds.html
    'Fox on praire.wav' sounds similar to Dru's recording.
    One of them sounds like a black-headed gull!

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  9. Dru Marland22 February 2011 at 06:50

    Thanks for the link, ES- though sadly I couldn't manage to open it. We used to get sheep everywhere in Wales; they'd push the bins over and forage in them, and sometimes I would wake up to find my caravan rocking as it were a boat in a choppy sea, as they rubbed their backs on the underside (it was parked on a steep hill)

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