owl screeches, fox barks, rain & midgies

[Crackle]

Ahh nights under canvas and the lack of double glazing is a joy to the senses but crap for a nights kip.

Sons 1 & 2, at my prompt, decided to camp out in the garden with friends. At 11.30pm, friend 2 decided he wanted his own bed, so I ran him home. Knowing Son no.2, I moved into the tent to keep him company and true to form he woke up a few times scrabbling around for a light.

At one point an owl flew over and screeched so loud, it sounded like he'd landed on the tent. Son No.2 popped up with "What the!" and then collapsed back asleep. I spent most of the rest of the night listening to rain on the tent, various coughs and barks which are normally hidden by the double glazing and then woke to the dawn chorus.

Oh! and the midgies arrived last night. No scouts, just vast swarms of invaders. Be warned if you come to camp in the Highlands now.

 

[Keith Oates]

I like camping, or at least I used to like it, but with swarms of midges it would be a no no for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[surfgurl]

There is something wonderful about lying in a tent late at night trying to fall asleep. I love all the noises you don't normally hear. Well not all of them, I'm not too keen on the one that sounds like the beast of Bodmin.
As a contrast sleeping in a tent at Glasonbury festival is an experience. Even though you are in the middle of field, there are so many people about that you don't hear anything of nature. Last year I lay there at 4 in the morning peering out of my tent watching Chinese lanterns being set off into the sky from the hillside to an accompaniment of people singing, talking and having a great time. It was wonderful and soothing in its own special way.

 

[Milo]

Until the acid freak runs into your tent shouting about bats.

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

Last year I lay there at 4 in the morning peering out of my tent

Check the spelling.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

At one point an owl flew over and screeched so loud, it sounded like he'd landed on the tent. Son No.2 popped up with "What the!" and then collapsed back asleep. I spent most of the rest of the night listening to rain on the tent, various coughs and barks which are normally hidden by the double glazing and then woke to the dawn chorus.

Oh! and the midgies arrived last night. No scouts, just vast swarms of invaders. Be warned if you come to camp in the Highlands now.

Ah That's brill - an owl. Any idea what species?

You can keep the midges tho'

 

[Crackle]

Ah That's brill - an owl. Any idea what species?

Which species screech?

 

[Crackle]

Which species screech?

Probably a tawny:-

In addition to the two main calls of Tawny Owls (the hoot and the screech) there are many other, more subtle, communicative noises uttered by them at various times of the year. During early spring calls will be at their minimum if the pair are breeding, but if you sit still on a quite spring night and listen very carefully you might just hear the females calling from their nests. This call is a much softer, almost submissive, version of the main female screech, which will also be used whilst she is incubating eggs and waiting to be fed by the male.

I certainly have heard them hooting at night, never heard a screech though but so far not seen one.

 

[Dave5N]

Buy a house.

 

[Globalti]

I remember being in a tent in the middle of the night in a remote Scottish glen and being awoken by the wierdest sound going around above my tent. I plucked up the courage to open the flap and looked out to see a huge white bird circling above me in the moonlight making the strangest wickering sound. It was so spooky it made my hair stand on end. Never forgotten that.

If you want to camp out from now onwards, surround your tent with burning mosquito coils to keep the midges away.

 

[Canrider]

Knowing Son no.2, I moved into the tent to keep him company and true to form he woke up a few times scrabbling around for a light.

Surely if he's old enough to smoke, he's old enough to sleep in a tent on his own??

 

[Crackle]

Surely if he's old enough to smoke, he's old enough to sleep in a tent on his own??

Very good.

He knows he's not supposed to smoke in the tent; fire hazard. I brought him up properly. Might keep the midgies off though.