What can you hear when you go outside?

[SheepyJames]

What can you hear when you go outside at night? I have just got my washing in and, as I often do at night, I stood still for a while and listened to the sounds of the night. It was quiet, still and damp. A owl hooting very near, a honk from the gander, rustling in the hedge and another more elusive sound. Eventually I realised that it was the sound of leaves landing on the wet grass!

[Oola]

At the moment I hear a sort of muted 'plop' noise - apples falling from the trees. Rustling and snuffles of hedgehogs, running water from a neighbour's pond. We did have a very noisy owl not long ago too.

[SheepyJames]

You must be a bit behind us, Oola. All our apples are picked and packed away. Sheep still assemble hopefully at the gate to the orchard, though. Too woolly-headed to realise all the apples have gone!

[SummerSkye]

I hear the owl as he is just outside on the clothes line. Plovers cry out if something enters their territory; possums fighting as it is mating season and the devils wandering along searching for food are always noisy. I can also hear the roar of the falls as they are just behind our property and in full flood at the moment.

[keepersdaughter]

My that owl gets around doesn't he, most nights for the last week or so an owl has gently been hooting in the pine trees. A few ciccadias still remain, their electrical sounds still fill the night air until around 4.00a.m. along with the free frogs.

[Crocus]

Hi, yesterday evening we had quite a blustery wind, which of course cancelled out any other night sounds etc. Could hear crickets though, and earlier we could hear seagulls 'going back home' from wherever they were. Little birds coming back to their nests for a good night's rest. Lovely, the sights and sounds of nature!

[eleanor2]

i love walking round the park at night.its is quiet .fieshermen late fishing. everywhere eerie .its like your in another world.

[susiedart]

Lucky you hearing owls as they are becoming an endangered species which is awful. I do hear them on my daughter's farm & I stop and listen, enjoying the moment.

[eleanor2]

hi glad you made it nice to welcome you to rural muse.

[gothfairy]

The water trickling into the pond, sometimes an owl, scufflings in the grass from a hedgehog, ploppings into the pond from the frog, an occasional car, but mainly silence. Most of all, it's the sounds you can't hear which are a blessing... screaming children, sugar beet lorries, aircraft from RAF base etc.

[jazzactivist]

At the moment all that I seem to hear is raindrops! However, I love going outside on really cold frosty nights as the temperature is dropping when I can actually hear the frost crisping up the grass and on the surfaces.

[Crocus]

CRICKETS - LOTS!

[SheepyJames]

Isn't it strange how that simple question has brought to life all the different parts of the world we all come from?

[Oola]

Really interesting - also interesting that no one has absolute silence. I never experience silence, there's always a distant faded buzz of traffic, or something going on outside. I find silence pretty unnerving really. Strangely enough I sleep with a fan on pointed directly at me all night otherwise I can't sleep at all (combination of constant hum and breeze on face), even in the deepest darkest depths of winter. Completely and utterly weird, I know!

My favourite sound is summer rain at night. I wang the window wide open so I can listen to it as I lie in bed.

[Healing Hands]

A very noisy owl....

[Rosie]

I can hear sparrows whistling and the wind blowing the trees.

[Rosie]

Maybe it is a thrush or a blackbird.

[JerseyLily]

The sound of the sea, mostly, and rustling leaves on trees with assorted animal sounds.
When in London, I wear earplugs at night.

[Sparrow]

Well, not much at night, but early this morning, our local Tui population were making a rare old racket in a neighbour's gum tree. They are at the "drunk and disorderly" part of the year as they get well and truly pickled on the nectar from the kowhai trees. If you'd like to hear a bit of what they sound like, here's a link.

http://www.nzbirds.com/birds/birdsong.html

[Crocus]

Goodness, what beautiful birds - they sound lovely too! Thanks!

[gothfairy]

[QUOTE=. I find silence pretty unnerving really.

I agree, that total, absolute silence is a bit menacing in a way and so hard to describe. How would you describe it to someone? And it's like total darkness, which you only really find in the countryside I suppose, away from street lights and houses etc. That can be a bit unnerving as well, if you are outside.

[Crocus]

It's like it's so silent, you can almost hear it??

At the moment all I can hear is neighbours across the road busy renovating their house - oh and the crickets again! Odd car passing by.

[SheepyJames]

I suppose absolute silence is threatening because everyone and everything would have died! Thinking of the earplugs - I always found it strange that visitors were kept awake by our cockerel who insisted on crowing in the moonlight. I suppose it's just what you get used to. I used to have the London-Brighton railwayline at the bottom of my garden and the only time we couldn't sleep was when they went on strike! We always have the distant hum of the motorway which is about 3 miles away. The only time it stops is mid-morning on Saturdays in the school holidays - that's when the traffic on it grinds to a halt! (Current cockerel hasn't worked out how to crow yet, so all is quiet.)

[Crocus]

I must say I prefer to at least hear something, even if it's a "unnatural" sound like a car or something. I wouldn't like it when completely silent. I remember in my childhood days we visited relatives on their farm quite regularly. It was completely dark, but you could hear the odd owl, or so.