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hellohello
04-25-2011, 14:31
Hello, I just got back from a two week section hike, and myself and numerous other hikers have noticed this low vibration coming from the mountains that sounds like a heartbeat or ball bouncing and steadily increasing in speed. I'm not sure how to describe it better than that. I noticed it in Georgia all the way through to North Carolina. One guy at the Siler Bald shelter said he heard it dozens of times in the morning while I was asleep. One old-timer said he'd been on the trail for years, and this is the first year he's noticed it. Does anyone have any idea what this is? If you're able to get out there, go and lay your head to the ground on the trail, I guarantee you'll notice it.

royalusa
04-25-2011, 14:38
That would be the mating call of a grouse. You can probably find some recordings of it on youtube.

royalusa
04-25-2011, 14:39
More info: The male makes his familiar drumming sound by rapidly vibrating his wings over a hollow log, while raising his crest and ruff.

10-K
04-25-2011, 14:46
Amazing! I can't believe I'm reading this - I heard the same thing and thought I was hearing a trick of sound waves bouncing around the mountains.

klpicktown
04-25-2011, 14:49
it's called drumming.... the harder the grouse beats, the more the ladies like it......

wings....beats his wings....

Second Half
04-25-2011, 14:59
Hello, I just got back from a two week section hike, and myself and numerous other hikers have noticed this low vibration coming from the mountains that sounds like a heartbeat or ball bouncing and steadily increasing in speed. I'm not sure how to describe it better than that. I noticed it in Georgia all the way through to North Carolina. One guy at the Siler Bald shelter said he heard it dozens of times in the morning while I was asleep. One old-timer said he'd been on the trail for years, and this is the first year he's noticed it. Does anyone have any idea what this is? If you're able to get out there, go and lay your head to the ground on the trail, I guarantee you'll notice it.

There's medication for that :)

royalusa
04-25-2011, 15:01
...thought I was hearing a trick of sound waves bouncing around the mountains.

Until we figured it out, we thought it was the firing up of moonshine stills...but we could never find them, so then we figured it must have been the noise of something else.

mweinstone
04-25-2011, 15:18
i tell hikers its a grouse and they get all mouthy. thats not an animal matthewski. its a machine you dumby.
its a grouse.
no, its not matthewski.we dont have any idea what it is but we know for sure its not a bird of any kind. nor any animal.
its a grouse.
okay matty, its a grouse. a sixty foot grouse weighing over a ton. the noise we hear is much more powerful than a grouse. we have been hearing it for miles and miles and days and days matthewski. so it aint no bird.
its a grouse.
somebody give that boy some glucose.
its a grouse.

Two Tents
04-25-2011, 15:21
Maybe it's a warraghiyagey. Just sayin.

Tinker
04-25-2011, 15:56
The first time I heard drumming in the woods I wondered why there was a tractor way back in the woods and why they couldn't keep it running. :rolleyes::D

Pringles
04-25-2011, 18:55
The first time I heard drumming in the woods I wondered why there was a tractor way back in the woods and why they couldn't keep it running. :rolleyes::D

I was camped beside Lake Superior. I thought a ship was having a problem.

Pringles

bulldog49
04-25-2011, 19:29
Hello, I just got back from a two week section hike, and myself and numerous other hikers have noticed this low vibration coming from the mountains that sounds like a heartbeat or ball bouncing and steadily increasing in speed. I'm not sure how to describe it better than that. I noticed it in Georgia all the way through to North Carolina. One guy at the Siler Bald shelter said he heard it dozens of times in the morning while I was asleep. One old-timer said he'd been on the trail for years, and this is the first year he's noticed it. Does anyone have any idea what this is? If you're able to get out there, go and lay your head to the ground on the trail, I guarantee you'll notice it.


I don't know how anyone who has been on the trail for years had never heard this before and did not know what is.

chiefduffy
04-26-2011, 00:49
The sound of the southern AT in the spring. A very, very good sound.

garlic08
04-26-2011, 08:44
It freaked me out a little first time I heard it in the Washington Cascades. In my experienced mind, it was a large predator stalking me! Since then, I've been fortunate enough three times to actually see a grouse cock displaying its ruff as it "drums". A few years ago I was hiking with a retired 40+ year veteran of the BLM in Oregon and we found a grouse cock drumming--he said it was the first time he'd ever seen it and felt very fortunate. The feathers around the neck alternately display a "target" of different colors, too, so it's as weird visually as it is aurally.

88BlueGT
04-26-2011, 08:52
very very interesting... never heard anything like this before.

Jaybird
04-26-2011, 08:58
Aliens disquised as Ruffed Grouse!...