Or the silence of an owl flying close by and taking a rabbit. Of course the rabbit wasn't silent about taking it's part in the nocturnal drama. It let out a massive scream that left my ears ringing and thankfully it was cut short with a gurgle and crunch crunch sound. The rustling sounds also ended at that point. Then the owl hauled it's catch up and away to where it came from. On it's return flight I got to feel the draft from it's wings, but I still didn't hear it. On both flights, it looked like a few gray indistinct streaks waving up and down as it flew through the air. It looked very much like they describe the motions of ghosts, and that rabbit's scream, that could easily have been a monster of some sort. That night showed to me how ghost and monster stories came about. BTW, this happened just outside my barn, and the actual kill happened about 12 feet to the side of me. I also found rabbit bones and hide on top of the grain bin the following day.hammer & tongs wrote:To say nothing of a sudden departure of a covey of quail..when least expexted ! ...LOL
While doing some fencing, I had a red tailed hawk take a rabbit about 25 feet behind me. That wasn't nearly as loud, but the totally unexpected scream of the rabbit nearly made me jump out of my skin. Thankfully the hawk was much faster in silencing the rabbit.
One of my other up close wildlife encounters happened up along one of the roads that gets near the Boundary Waters Canoe area. I had a hobby of doing Aurora watching, and if it looked like there was going to be a storm on a night where I didn't have to work the next day. I'd throw the bed roll and camping gear into the pickup bed and head north, even if it was going to be -20 that night. On this particular night the Auroras were nice, but at around 4am I'd gone over an hour without seeing any so I went to bed. I rolled out my sleeping roll in the back of the pickup like I always did, then I put the tarp bows over it, then tied the tarp down to the sides of the pickup. I awoke to a couple gentle sideways jostles of the pickup. In the dawn light I could see the shadow of a snout up against the tarp sniffing. For some reason I punched it with all my might which precipitated a yelp. Then I could hear something running away through the snow. By the time I got my head out from under the tarp I was only left with large paw prints in the snow. On the small hill to the west I found tracks from multiple wolves with two sets leading to and back from my pickup. BTW, when this happened I knew wolves were in the area. For years I'd often heard them when Aurora watching. I'd also seen them a couple times during canoe trips in the Boundary Waters Canoe area.