View Full Version : Weird sounds on the trail
Mikerfixit
05-05-2022, 08:58
After reading another post about weird sounds I've decided to post my own.
I haven't been able to find a recording that sounds anything like what I heard but it was best described as a loud husky "I'm getting ready to puke" type of sound with a trill at the end.
It took place in southern PA in early October just before sunset. It was loud enough to fill the shelter area and neither I nor my friend who grew up in a rural area hunting could figure out what it may have been. We made a guess that it was some type of bird.
It seemed to come from up in the trees as best we could tell but it only sounded once so we couldn't really pin point it.
illabelle
05-05-2022, 10:07
No idea what creature made the sound you describe. Just wanted to make the point that we often limit the vocalizations of a particular species to just the most common or primary sounds associated with that animal. But why wouldn't an animal be capable of a wide range of sounds beyond the common or primary? What does a coyote/duck/skunk/owl sound like when they feel "ready to puke"? How does their voice change when they're scared? Or hurt/horny/hungry? Or when they're coddling their young? Maybe you just happened to hear an animal puke, who knows?
Alligator
05-05-2022, 12:03
No idea but a wild guess maybe an owl puking up a pellet.
No idea what creature made the sound you describe. Just wanted to make the point that we often limit the vocalizations of a particular species to just the most common or primary sounds associated with that animal. But why wouldn't an animal be capable of a wide range of sounds beyond the common or primary? What does a coyote/duck/skunk/owl sound like when they feel "ready to puke"? How does their voice change when they're scared? Or hurt/horny/hungry? Or when they're coddling their young? Maybe you just happened to hear an animal puke, who knows?
LMAO, damn hair balls! Been there myself a few times!
GoldenBear
05-05-2022, 13:49
Was getting to sleep along The Trail in North Carolina when I heard this sound for a couple minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SwMJ50Dbz4
Had never heard it before, and had no idea what it was. I could tell it was SOME kind of a bird, but didn't know which one. After searching for
north carolina bird sounds
I found what it was.
Dan Roper
05-05-2022, 14:23
GoldenBear's link is to a barred owl giving it's "who cooks for you?" call. Very common.
Sometimes the barred owl breaks into a crazy call, something like monkey's laughing or somebody coughing up a hairball while drunk. Here's a YouTube link: (1) These Caterwauling Barred Owls Sound Like Monkeys - Calling All Turkeys - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12ioHWj-ZcI)
Odd Man Out
05-05-2022, 14:49
I think I heard a Barred Owl in SNP. Woke me up in the middle of the night. Very loud. Sounded like someone being murdered.
gpburdelljr
05-05-2022, 15:08
All those odd sounds are made by Bigfoot.
Sarcasm the elf
05-05-2022, 15:37
All those odd sounds are made by Bigfoot.
False. Sometimes the noises are from wendigos. :eek:
There are so many weird sounds especially at night. I did a trip last week for the first time in way too long and heard all kinds of things. Couldn't get to sleep for a couple of hours. When I used to go on trips regularly, all of that sort of thing just faded into the background. The other thing I noticed last week when I got up in the middle of the night was something weird looking in the sky that turned out to be stars.
4eyedbuzzard
05-05-2022, 20:16
Not weird or uncommon, but gotta put in a vote for the screech owl. The 6" tall bird that will send grown men running for cover in the middle of the night.
CrumbSnatcher
05-05-2022, 20:40
starving thruhiker eating to fast maybe
Mikerfixit
05-06-2022, 08:26
I'm ok with calling it an owl. My friend and I thought it might have been some type of bird. The video links so far don't sound anything like what we heard though.
Or it could be that thruhiker. Maybe a thruhiker named Barfing Owl.
NY HIKER 50
05-06-2022, 11:25
In all honesty, it may be a crow or similar. They are great imitators. I did have a cat that seemed to vocalize oh no not again before he threw up. This is all real. Or it just may have sounded that way to a human.
Night Train
05-06-2022, 12:19
I don't think Johnny Cash would qualify as weird but I could hear Folsom Prison Blues clear as a bell one night on Roan Mtn. I thought maybe it was coming from Carvers Gap or the Cloudland parking lot but there was no echo or any sound distortion you would anticipate hearing from a distant stereo.
A bobcat screech in the middle of the night is absolutely hair-raising...
GoldenBear
05-06-2022, 15:01
I remember, many years ago, a person on Whiteblaze posting about hearing this sound on the trail, in the middle of a pitch dark night.
https://sounds-mp3.com/mp3/0000961.mp3
He admitted to being terrified as this sound kept getting closer & closer to the shelter he was TRYING to sleep in.
BTW, this is the sound of a porcupine.
LazyLightning
05-06-2022, 16:40
The sound that got me that eventually somebody pointed out as a likely bird call of some sort, was not scary at all and not most likely at night. I only heard it on the AT mostly down south until recently I now heard it 2 times in CT for sure in the last 6 months. It's a very distant sound and sounds like somebody drops a ball with repeated bounces that get softer each time until it fades, only a few seconds long. At first it sounded like a hammer way in the distance but definitely not, it was way to consistent each time. That had me puzzled for the longest time because it just doesn't sound like anything an animal would make.
The sound that got me that eventually somebody pointed out as a likely bird call of some sort, was not scary at all and not most likely at night. I only heard it on the AT mostly down south until recently I now heard it 2 times in CT for sure in the last 6 months. It's a very distant sound and sounds like somebody drops a ball with repeated bounces that get softer each time until it fades, only a few seconds long. At first it sounded like a hammer way in the distance but definitely not, it was way to consistent each time. That had me puzzled for the longest time because it just doesn't sound like anything an animal would make.
That sounds like maybe a male grouse drumming? I hear this especially often in the spring in the south.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcA3tyE1fYs
gpburdelljr
05-06-2022, 17:59
The sound that got me that eventually somebody pointed out as a likely bird call of some sort, was not scary at all and not most likely at night. I only heard it on the AT mostly down south until recently I now heard it 2 times in CT for sure in the last 6 months. It's a very distant sound and sounds like somebody drops a ball with repeated bounces that get softer each time until it fades, only a few seconds long. At first it sounded like a hammer way in the distance but definitely not, it was way to consistent each time. That had me puzzled for the longest time because it just doesn't sound like anything an animal would make.
Maybe a Ruffed Grouse drumming.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ruffed_Grouse/sounds
Daybreak
05-06-2022, 18:42
Maybe a Ruffed Grouse drumming.
I would say most definitely. Listening with good headphones makes the bass come out better. On the southern AT, I usually heard it from a distance which seems to mute the higher notes and perhaps blur the drumming a little.
How about the Raven for the puking sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDv_PlrBg14
Fallesafe
05-07-2022, 10:48
The weirdest and most amazing sound I heard on trail was in the Virginia area. There's this bird whose voice sounds like it's being pumped through a kaleidoscope. It has so many simultaneous overtones and undertones weaving and braiding together at the same time. I never got to see what bird was making this noise. But it amazed me every time I heard it. It sounded very tropical to me.
The most annoying sound I heard on trail was also in the Virginia area. And it was the whippoorwill. This thing would perch on a branch above my tent at 9PM and not shut up for 20 seconds until 5am the next morning lol
LazyLightning
05-07-2022, 11:20
wow thanks, definitely the grouse drumming, that was cool to see a video of the sound.
smkymtns
05-07-2022, 12:06
The most annoying sound I heard on trail was also in the Virginia area. And it was the whippoorwill. This thing would perch on a branch above my tent at 9PM and not shut up for 20 seconds until 5am the next morning lol
And they will occasionally pause just long enough that you think “thank the lor@!$&&? Arrrgh, it’s back at it!’ Ear plugs don’t seem to block their irratating and incessant call either.
F
The weirdest and most amazing sound I heard on trail was in the Virginia area. There's this bird whose voice sounds like it's being pumped through a kaleidoscope. It has so many simultaneous overtones and undertones weaving and braiding together at the same time. I never got to see what bird was making this noise. But it amazed me every time I heard it. It sounded very tropical to me.
Hermit Thrush perhaps?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0mATRdzZSc
Better Hermit Thrush: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB0QyShvqAg
Dan Roper
05-08-2022, 05:54
I'm not positive what "pumped through a kaleidoscope" means, but if it sounded like some kind of "electric music," that could be a veery (a member of the thrush family): (2) Veery Song - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtJ14MV64WY)
Or, if it went on and on, like a run-on trill, that could be a winter wren: (2) Winter Wren Singing - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw-NqhxwGWQ)
Fallesafe
05-08-2022, 21:07
I'm not positive what "pumped through a kaleidoscope" means, but if it sounded like some kind of "electric music," that could be a veery (a member of the thrush family): (2) Veery Song - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtJ14MV64WY)
Or, if it went on and on, like a run-on trill, that could be a winter wren: (2) Winter Wren Singing - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw-NqhxwGWQ)
F
Hermit Thrush perhaps?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0mATRdzZSc
Oh wow! You guys really know your birds!! Its gotta be one of those you just linked. That's exactly the sound. Theres just so much going on at once.
Old Grouse
05-09-2022, 14:35
Maybe a Ruffed Grouse drumming.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ruffed_Grouse/sounds
Yes, definitely a ruffed grouse. Probably my cousin Bob, in fact.
It's the grouse that waits until you are right next to them before they fly away scaring the you know what out of ya .
Jim Obermeyer
05-10-2022, 07:08
Probably not a Bigfoot, but it could be Bigfoot investigators doing vocalizations while filming a new episode of "Finding Bigfoot" better known as "Not Finding Bigfoot"
One Half
05-10-2022, 08:02
It's the grouse that waits until you are right next to them before they fly away scaring the you know what out of ya .
Yes!
Way scary
I heard what sounded like a young girl screaming on the AT near Walker Gap in VA. About 98% sure it was some kind of owl.
However...the creepiest thing I've ever heard was bushwhacking thru Congaree NP a few years ago. It was fairly late at night and I was set up along Cedar Creek deep in the park's backcountry when I heard a series of slaps on the water in the creek. It sounded like a hand hitting the water and it happened about ten times over the course of maybe five minutes. The only thing I can think is that it was a beaver slapping it's tail but another part of me thinks it was Sasquatch trying to sus out some fish:-?
gpburdelljr
05-10-2022, 16:50
However...the creepiest thing I've ever heard was bushwhacking thru Congaree NP a few years ago. It was fairly late at night and I was set up along Cedar Creek deep in the park's backcountry when I heard a series of slaps on the water in the creek. It sounded like a hand hitting the water and it happened about ten times over the course of maybe five minutes. The only thing I can think is that it was a beaver slapping it's tail but another part of me thinks it was Sasquatch trying to sus out some fish:-?
It probably was a beaver, and thought you were the Sasquatch :)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zptTKMdYEso
Deer can make some weird sounds, too.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf1j33Ja1so
Odd Man Out
05-11-2022, 17:58
On Isle Royale we had a White Throated Sparrow sing next to our cabin at 4 AM every morning. Not scary, but you cant sleep through it.