Yowiehunters Forum

Hi all, just wanted to ask if anyone has ever heard any extremely loud screeching sounds from the bush? If so what did they sound like ? . Unfortunately neither sound i heard was recorded.

The first sound came after we were standing on the bush edge when a rock came down, this was a while back. We walked away a good 50 metres in a clearing and the 3 of us sat down. It was aprox 9pm, clear night. After we had walked away from the rock and sat we were all just chatting and then all of us turned our heads at the same direction from where the rock had come from. The sound was deafening and lasted for about 30 seconds. I described it as a 2.4 long farm gate opening very slowly on rusty hinges, but again it was deafening. Now the sound didnt move to another direction, there was no gate there and really didnt sound like no bird ( but if you have a bird sound fitting this description id love to hear). Anyhow we immediately left the area.


The second time was a good 6 months later. Ron and i were checking out a camping ground about 15 km away from the first sound encounter. It was clear and daylight. Ron was driving very slowly around a circular drive ( passing each camp site) no campers were there. The bush edge was on my side of car( passenger side), all of a sudden a loud screech came( no where as loud as the first sound but definently loud.) I immediately said to Ron " your brakes are running metal on metal".He said "no, it came from the bush edge" . He drove around the circular drive again to show me it wasnt his brakes. The noise didnt come again.The noise only lasted a few seconds.

So 2 screeching sounds at 2 different times were heard and i havnt heard of them since on countless of occasions going back.
To this day i keep thinking about what on earth it could be. Any help out there? Ta Dee

Hey Dee, how are you good I hope. I'm just wondering if you have ever heard a fox screech? My goodness, some of them sound like a woman screaming. Not saying that this is what you heard but maybe.

Hi Tracker, no i havnt . Theres bound to be foxes out there, i have seen dingoes. Ill check out fox vocals on the net and see if any are a similar sound to what i heard. You would have thought though that i would here that regularly though .Thanks for that.

I also have a lot of foxes at work that come through on night shift ( i work on 200 bush acres), they grab the koalas when they come down the trees, i havnt heard any fox sounds at work--probably will know lol.

Hi Dee
Most small mammals can make some pretty horrendous screeching vocalisations when being captured by a predator, so that's another possibility. Even leaving my audio recorder out it's not often that you capture calls of mammals. I've only captured fox calls on one occasion and I've done 5 or 6 week long sessions aswell as all the other time in the bush at night. Being ex-Army it was weeks and even months on end and that was the first time I've ever heard it.
Cheers Slats

The Barking Owl - Female - sometimes called a screeching woman owl. It sounds like it too. Was distant and I only learned what it was after the fact. I had known about them but never heard one. Still, it’s very different hearing one in real life and in the dark.

I must add I didn’t see the owl. It’s a presumption on my part.

Cheers Buck

Slats wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 1:08 pm Hi Dee
Most small mammals can make some pretty horrendous screeching vocalisations when being captured by a predator, so that's another possibility. Even leaving my audio recorder out it's not often that you capture calls of mammals. I've only captured fox calls on one occasion and I've done 5 or 6 week long sessions aswell as all the other time in the bush at night. Being ex-Army it was weeks and even months on end and that was the first time I've ever heard it.
Cheers Slats

Hi, thanks slats. I did look up fox calls, there are a lot of different vocals from them, none that i heard matched up to the sounds i heard but then that doesnt mean its not them still. Just trying to cull stuff out so my thoughts dont run straight to the yowie. Being ex army would help a lot! Thanks again.

Buck wrote: Sat Jun 01, 2019 1:35 pm The Barking Owl - Female - sometimes called a screeching woman owl. It sounds like it too. Was distant and I only learned what it was after the fact. I had known about them but never heard one. Still, it’s very different hearing one in real life and in the dark.

I must add I didn’t see the owl. It’s a presumption on my part.

Cheers Buck

Thanks Buck, oh gosh,looks like ill be looking up owl vocals too now. I should be a expert in a few years lol. Ron and i are going out monday and wednesday night so ill keep the recorders running, hopefully i can get that sound again. Thats if i dont FREEZE to death out there! Dee

G'day,
I would recommend checking what feral deer you have in your area and listening to vocalizations from them too, they too can make some pretty interesting sounds, other friendly little fellas such as quolls and koala's can make amazing sounds too

Tommi wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2019 12:12 am G'day,
I would recommend checking what feral deer you have in your area and listening to vocalizations from them too, they too can make some pretty interesting sounds, other friendly little fellas such as quolls and koala's can make amazing sounds too

Hi Tommy, yes we are well aware of red stags, plenty at Woodford-they are huge.Yowie hunting can get dangerous out in the dark lol. I work nighshift with koalas everywhere so for years iv listened to there grunting calls and there smells--gross. Dont know much about quolls though.thanks for the heads up. Rains on its way again so hope it stays away so we can at least go out tomorrow night. Dying to use my new camera. Dee

As Buck said, Barking owls. They make an absolutely horrendous screaming sound . Ive heard them twice at my place, once after a party and was in bed asleep and my wife and me were woken up. She said " what was that" and i said " fucked if i know but im not going out to find out."
The second time was years later so this time i got up to find the source with a big torch and homed in on a quite small owl sitting on a sprinkler in the paddock making the hugh amount of noise.
It then flew staight over my head screaming. Quite amazing, and a relief because i thought for years we had a visit from a bloody terrible monster or something.

Some screeching australian owls .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCm_QgjsPSM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYuJFUUJhUo

Could it be a curlew? They are quite noisy.