Have You Ever Heard This?

[Tylo]

I heard an unusual coyote call last night, one very loud crisp call then followed by brief muffled yaps.  It actually sounded like the call Hermione Granger used in the Harry Potter movie with the werewolf except not female.   I always laughed when I heard her make the call because I've never heard any such thing from coyotes, didn't think wolves sounded like that.

For the last two weeks I've heard the same thing, one extremely loud clear call then a few smaller, quieter excited yaps, usually late at night.  I heard it with distractions when the windows were barely open (due to the cold) and never really heard it clearly until last night around 9:30 PM. I pay attention to the coyotes here.  We've had extreme rain, sleet, snow off and on and yesterday we had warmer temperatures.  The peeper frogs are quite active.  As I write this they are still singing out there now at 12:09AM.  So, last night I heard it clearly.  Ahh-OOOOoooooooo!  I have never heard a coyote call begin with AH, only OOOOoooooo (howling) usually followed by many loud excited yips and yaps and a variety of other dog sounds.  THEN after that it was dead quiet and when I mean dead quiet, freaky silent. (Put on some noise cancelling headphones and sit in a room without any noise kind of silent.)  I had the windows open so I could hear very clearly.  For hours after that call until I went to bed it was silent outside.  ****It just happened again as I write this***  My windows are open.

 

Have any of you ever heard a coyote or wolf call begin with AHH?  I've lived around coyotes for almost 40 years and have never heard a call like it.  Ahh-OOOoo?

[NorthWind]

Nope. We only have a few 'yotes around here where I am in Oregon west of the Cascades. Funny we had more where I grew up outside of Los Angeles, and I used to see them often, and hear them nightly. I would leave my window open so I could listen to them "singing" in the canyon above my home. To me it was a comforting sound. They make a lot of noises, but I never heard a call beginning with an "ahh" as you describe. Though they are certainly capable. Wolves are different, haunting and chilling sounds. I heard those several times when I was up in British Columbia on cold, lonely winter nights. No "ahh" there either though.

 

You should record it. A cheapo audio recorder is not break the bank expensive. Or build a parabolic type of setup. https://bigfootforums.com/topic/72450-parabolic-dish-and-microphone/?do=findComment&comment=1064108

 

 

 

[Tylo]

NorthWind:  Thanks.  I've never heard such an odd coyote call. Never beginning with AHH.  Yeah, I find them comforting, too.  Windows open.  I do have a Sony recorder but am sure I need parabolic to pick up anything clearly.  I actually laughed because that call was incredibly loud and it was behind my neighbor's house.  Better there not here, I say.

[Kiwakwe]

 

At the 35 sec mark of the first recording, it's not quite an ahhh more an errr.  I recorded that one last year about this time while bushwhacking through an alder bog. The others are from the home turf, the resident clan. I thought they've sounded more wolf like at times, typically this time of year, pondered whether it was some mating season juju.

[Madison5716]

@Kiwakwe, my goodness, they are noisy! I've also seen more coyotes in LA than here in Oregon, too, NorthWind! They came down from the Hollywood hills, and I lived not far off Ventura Blvd. One killed a cat under my bedroom window when I was very pregnant with my son, and I was too slow and awkward to get out there to save it. Still feel sad about it 20 years later!

[Skinwalker13]

Yeah high pitched call followed by muffled yips is pretty comon this time of year. Feb-april is the breeding season for yotes, at least out here in the east. Its the most active time of year and really easy to drum up excitement on a night hike with a group of eco-tourists who have never heard it lol.

[Wolfjewel]

@Kiwakwe, great sound files. I’ll have to finish listening to them when my dog gets off the bed and leaves the room. They really set her off barking, even though she usually ignores dog sounds on TV or computer. Her reaction is the same as when the real-life yotes howl outside—we both can hear them with the windows closed!

[Foxhill]

The yotes in my area of VA are very quiet.

But I will say having turkey hunted for many years, I wouldn't get to hung up on odd animal sounds. Some of the worst turkey calls I've ever heard were made by turkeys and the most proper calls were made by fellow hunters.

 Now if you ever get to hear foxes doing their thing, that will get your attention. 

 

 

 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Foxhill

[Tylo]

Kiwakwe: Thanks for the files! The second/third files sound more like our typical yapping critters (when the crowd kicks in.)  They get wound up hearing sirens.  I don't think I usually hear a lone WOOooo first, our crowd usually just starts yapping all at once.  I don't recall them ever sounding wolf like.  The two week span of the calls had one extremely loud call first then very muted, brief yapping and then they simmered down.  The AHh-OOoo was odd, though.  Laughing here.  Never Ahh before Ooo! Generation after generation, I do like hearing them.  I also need to hear a Whippoorwill every year or I worry that they lost their habitat.  : )

 

Foxhill:  I heard foxes when I lived in Wisconsin.  I had a mom and two kits hanging around my house.  Will never forget those yellow eyes, they would stand outside my door or window and stare at me. They actually seemed cat-like to me. Good memories!  Rarely see coyotes here.

[Wolfjewel]

On 3/26/2022 at 12:42 AM, Tylo said:

  I also need to hear a Whippoorwill every year or I worry that they lost their habitat.  : )

I recall my first and only time hearing whippoorwill calls was at a campground in far northern NJ, near the Penn. border. It was on a lake where the sound reverberated beautifully. Maybe a dozen years ago. Hope you hear one near you this year!