Post by: Okanagan on April 03, 2022, 09:07:40 PM
Both times I made some noise cracking dry twigs as I headed to a calling stand.
The first time, I accidentally cracked some dry twigs and within less than a minute the first belch sounded from a few hundred yards away.
Two minutes later I was 75 yards farther and brushed through some alders that were bent down across the old road. Immediately the belch/bawl came at me again, this time from around a bend only 100 yards up the road.
It seemed to be an interrogatory sound, asking, “Who or what are you who is breaking brush over there?” I considered calling back immediately with a hand call, but decided to set up my lion stand and see if the critter would come to that. I heard a few faint sounds in the first five minutes, then nothing for the rest of the hour.
We’ve heard black bears make some weird sounds in spring, likely mating sounds, though never this particular sound. It is a bit early but IME males of every species start looking and calling well before the females get interested. A beef cow could make this sound, as could elk, probably deer, probably coyote and I’m sure a bear or cougar could make it.
Guesses and educated guesses as to ID welcome.
Post by: HUNTINCOUPLE on April 03, 2022, 09:17:46 PM
Post by: NRA4LIFE on April 03, 2022, 09:35:11 PM
Post by: CasterlyRock on April 03, 2022, 11:47:49 PM
Post by: huntnnw on April 04, 2022, 12:16:53 AM
Post by: Cylvertip on April 04, 2022, 12:18:14 AM
Post by: Encore 280 on April 04, 2022, 08:10:29 AM
Post by: CP on April 04, 2022, 08:14:37 AM
Post by: Okanagan on April 04, 2022, 09:09:23 AM
Elk barking?
It was considerably different from any elk bark I've heard, and I don't think there are any elk in the area where I was. Possible but very unlikely and I don't think it was elk. Never have seen an elk nor elk track in that drainage.
Was not the swoop of a hawk or bird, though not a bad guess from someone who only had my verbal description. Quite different. Made by vocal cords.
I hadn't even considered moose, but (other than a steer bawl) the sound is closest to a bull moose doing that brief, loud grunt/bark challenge they do. Northern Olympic Peninsula, moose extremely unlikely, almost equally unlikely to be a cow brute.
My first guess would be cougar, if my calling sounds had started. But this was either random or more likely, a response to the brush crackling sounds I was making. That context makes me think it was an amorous bear looking for a mate. Steve Rainshadow knows more about cougar sounds. Do they query the sound of something moving in the woods near them? I heard a large footed cougar make a rapidly repeating cha-cha-cha sound in response to cougar vocals on a calling stand one time. That one sounded like a baritone chipmunk and each of the "cha" bits was a bark somewhat like what I heard the other day.
Curious here but will likely never know for sure what made the sound.
Post by: pianoman9701 on April 04, 2022, 09:29:24 AM
My partner and I came back for the three-day season two weeks later. It poured rain like I'd never seen before. Although I though I had that bull tied to a tree, we never saw hide nor hair of him or any other moose the whole time. We were one of only 16 who didn't tag out that year. It was a huge disappointment but a great experience.
Post by: Cylvertip on April 04, 2022, 09:56:19 AM
Was not the swoop of a hawk or bird, though not a bad guess from someone who only had my verbal description. Quite different. Made by vocal cords.
[/quote]
Sorry, not a SparrowHawk, meant Nighthawk.
https://wildaboututah.org/nighthawks-go-boom/ (https://wildaboututah.org/nighthawks-go-boom/)
I guess similar to a bull frog
Post by: Okanagan on April 04, 2022, 07:39:54 PM
Cylvertip, growing up in Eastern WA we called nighthawks bullbats. Loved that distinctive soft roar of their swoop in the dark dusk of an evening.
Post by: Okanagan on April 10, 2022, 08:49:48 AM
Post by: Mudman on April 10, 2022, 11:10:43 AM
Post by: Goshawk on June 13, 2022, 06:53:22 PM
Post by: TriggerMike on June 21, 2022, 08:48:59 PM
Post by: Okanagan on June 22, 2022, 10:55:04 PM
Listening to animals in the wild has convinced me that many species make a much wider variety of sounds than we know about. We are perhaps famiiar with their main mating sounds etc. but over my years afield, many have surprised me by making sounds I had no idea that kind of critter could make.
Heard a cougar sound like an owl, a black bear moan and whine and wail much like a whale song, coyotes make so many sounds I can't keep track, lynx that sound like a cow moose in heat, and then like a mule deer doe snorting at me. Am still curious about the recent belch in the woods, and about a few others...
Post by: bhawley76 on June 23, 2022, 06:49:29 AM
Post by: Ghost Hunter on July 16, 2022, 08:19:57 AM
Post by: LDennis24 on July 16, 2022, 08:38:36 AM
Post by: Fidelk on July 16, 2022, 08:41:24 AM