Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 09:02:01 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Marko, Thomas L. GS BUMED" Subject: Re: Mystery Midnight Call - Black Hills Regional Park MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Could it be a Red Fox? The foxes in my neighborhood make a ghastly commotion in the middle of the night. Tom Marko Olney, MD E-mail: nitojo@comcast.net (home) / tlmarko@us.med.navy.mil (work) Member-Maryland Ornithological Society/Montgomery County Chapter -----Original Message----- From: Laura Kammermeier [mailto:kamms@COMCAST.NET] Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 09:54 PM To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM Subject: [MDOSPREY] Mystery Midnight Call - Black Hills Regional Park I hope one of you can help me identify the midnight call that my husband and I have heard several times. We live on the edge of Black Hills Regional Park...on a narrow bit of woods that has a small stream that eventually leads to the Little Seneca Lake (if you're familiar with the area, I'm in the Gables apartments right near the entrance to the golf park. The lake is about 10 minute walk down the path). In March or April, we were first awakened to a high-pitched scream in the middle of the night (Somewhere between 1 and 3 am). I thought it was a woman being accosted in the woods, and had my hand on the telephone to call police. But even though the scream was bloody and shrill, in my view the creature didn't behave like a woman in trouble; that is, its shrieks were short, somewhat punctuated, and repeated; they were not long and wailing. They also didn't grow in intensity...they were relatively even (though shrill) as they went on for over 5 minutes. I heard it slowly moving away from me. It kept me up all night, wondering if I had done the right thing. Though I've been birdwatching for about a decade and done some camping, I literally could not attribute it to any animal family I had ever heard before. We both were baffled. But I went to bed thinking it was teenagers horsing around. Somewhat to my relief, the sound happened again weeks later, then again. Each time in the middle of the night and the same pattern: shrill, punctuated shrieks that were relatively intense but even over time. Though I STILL had no idea what it was, I was assured it wasn't human at that point. Weeks ago, my husband was jogging at..eh-hem...5:15 am on Waters Landing Drive while I rested gleefully at home. It was still dark, but suddenly he heard the same loud screams and then saw a "huge bird" fly from the Little Seneca Lake area over Waters Landing Drive at a low level. He could see very little of the bird, but his first impression was heron. He heard the bird again a few days later at about the same time. We are sure that the sound wasn't a typical Screech Owl call....that call is continuous and wailing rather than punctuated and repeated. Do they have a different call? ANyway, I don't think a Screech Owl will appear HUGE as my husband saw that morning. I looked in Sibley at cranes and herons and owls. The only bird I could find that matches my call description, and does so quite well, is Limpkin (page 156): Loud, anguished, wild-sounding scream/wail, clear with some rattling overtones; higher pitched than cranes. "unmistakable." Are Limpkins ever found in the park? I see some green dots (rare occurrences) around the Chesapeake Bay. We just moved to Maryland in Spring but we'll be moving out of state again in just a few weeks. It would be wonderful to solve this mystery before we leave! Thanks for any and all help. Laura -- Laura Kammermeier Germantown, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================