So a little while ago I posted a thread talking about how I was hearing screaming from the woods. The first time I heard it it was coming from behind my pond, late at night. I had actually left my phone down by the pond that day so I needed to go get it before it started to rain, hearing that screaming was pretty scary on the way down. When I was down there I could tell the screaming was coming from a large hill behind the pond, on top of that hill there is a large colony of Great Blue Herons and I have heard them make some pretty crazy sounds before so I thought "oh it must just be the Blue Herons freaking out over something." A few days later I heard screaming again, this time from a different part of the woods, far away from the Blue heron colony. This freaked me out because I had no idea what it could be, I asked you guys for help and I was sent videos of animal screams, I thought it sounded like a bobcat and was freaked out, I did not think we had them around here.
Well since all of that happened, I have been hearing screams every night, sometimes it starts at 6 or 7 pm and it goes past 12. At first my dogs would go nuts when they heard it but it has been screaming so much that they have gotten used to it. I was getting pretty annoyed, it is not a very pleasant sound... So I went down there during the day to see what was going on, I found another colony of Blue herons in the spot where the screams were coming from, so I blamed them again. We also saw a massive Great horned owl fly off when we were down there and I think there might be a nest nearby. So I am pretty sure it is the Great blues that are screaming all night, almost every night, but why? Well I have come up with an idea...
So a year or two ago I was pretty into watching nest cams, usually Bald Eagle nest cams, and on those eagle cams there was a somewhat common pest, Great horned owls. The GHOs would fly by and strike the adult eagles on the head and then they would be gone, eagles can't see well in the dark and they would freak out. If the GHO could get the adult to freak out and fly off then it would target the eaglets, and although this never happened on any of the cams I watched, I have heard that they can and do kill eaglets. I have seen them pop the eagles live though. Here is a video of them pestering some large eaglets.
So I think it is a GHO that is popping the Blue herons and making them scream, I could find some videos of this happening on a Blue heron nest cam and the Blue heron did not sound very happy...
Here is a video of a bald eagle eating blue heron eggs, the parents are so loud, they sound like dinosaurs.
Here is a recording of what I now think is a blue heron, screaming in the woods. I am a few hundred feet from the colony, I can tell the screams are coming from up in the trees, not sure how well they picked up on recording though.
So yeah... Blue herons are scary and they sound like dinos, they are also annoying. I will try to clear a path to the nests so I can get right up under them next time and try to record the screams better.
Well since all of that happened, I have been hearing screams every night, sometimes it starts at 6 or 7 pm and it goes past 12. At first my dogs would go nuts when they heard it but it has been screaming so much that they have gotten used to it. I was getting pretty annoyed, it is not a very pleasant sound... So I went down there during the day to see what was going on, I found another colony of Blue herons in the spot where the screams were coming from, so I blamed them again. We also saw a massive Great horned owl fly off when we were down there and I think there might be a nest nearby. So I am pretty sure it is the Great blues that are screaming all night, almost every night, but why? Well I have come up with an idea...
So a year or two ago I was pretty into watching nest cams, usually Bald Eagle nest cams, and on those eagle cams there was a somewhat common pest, Great horned owls. The GHOs would fly by and strike the adult eagles on the head and then they would be gone, eagles can't see well in the dark and they would freak out. If the GHO could get the adult to freak out and fly off then it would target the eaglets, and although this never happened on any of the cams I watched, I have heard that they can and do kill eaglets. I have seen them pop the eagles live though. Here is a video of them pestering some large eaglets.
So I think it is a GHO that is popping the Blue herons and making them scream, I could find some videos of this happening on a Blue heron nest cam and the Blue heron did not sound very happy...
Here is a video of a bald eagle eating blue heron eggs, the parents are so loud, they sound like dinosaurs.
Here is a recording of what I now think is a blue heron, screaming in the woods. I am a few hundred feet from the colony, I can tell the screams are coming from up in the trees, not sure how well they picked up on recording though.
So yeah... Blue herons are scary and they sound like dinos, they are also annoying. I will try to clear a path to the nests so I can get right up under them next time and try to record the screams better.
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