What happens at night

Nighttime has always been my favorite time of day, all the way from dusk through dawn. I love watching Mother Moon sail through the sky, seeing the pretty stars, and the lovely mysterious way things look in the dark. Sometimes interesting things happen at night, too, like what I heard last night...

I stepped outside onto the patio last night, about 4:30 in the morning and heard the strangest sounds coming from another property. I am not sure if it was in the back yard of the house behind me, or maybe the property on the other side of them. There were several noises altogether, some of which are difficult to describe, but I will try my best:

• First, I heard what sounded like a bird calling, "Cooo, cooo, cooo!" It was a bird call which I don't recall ever hearing before, and I never quite figured out what kind of bird it might be.


• Then, I heard what sounded like a wooden shipping pallet being dragged across a concrete pad. Then the bird called again, then the wood-on-concrete scraping sound again. Those repeated a few times.


• Suddenly, there was a sound similar to the high-pitched almost-buzzing sound that is made when the monofilament line of a weed-eater makes contact with weeds.


• Then I heard the bird call again and the scraping again before a snorting sound joined the fray, like the snorting of a wild animal... maybe a wild boar or a bear...?


• A distinctive growl of an animal was heard next, followed by more bird calls, more scraping, and more monofilament buzzing, then more grunting and more growling.

It was the strangest thing! This whole commotion went on for five minutes, maybe more. I stood there completely mystified by what was happening. There were many bushes and trees and a small tractor shed between the fray and myself, so I could see nothing. I desperately wanted to walk the 50-or-so feet (15.5 meters), past the bushes and shed, to the back of my property with a flashlight to see what was going on, but thought the better of it. After all, if there had been a wild boar or bear over there, I did not want to attract its attention and have it come charging towards me. 😱

It could have been a wild animal, as there has been at least one bear in my back yard, maybe more. I have frequently seen heard other animals in the area, too, such as deer, foxes, racoons, opossums, skunks, groundhogs, and possibly (?) a coyote. So, a wild boar or another bear could definitely have been a possibility last night.

I never figured out what happened. Nothing looked amiss back there today, and I don't really know the neighbors way-back-there well enough to go ask them if they heard or saw anything. So, a mystery it shall remain, I suppose. 😕