Hopefully you guys can help me. I've lived in or near the woods all my life, and I've never heard anything close to this.

Around midnight, a whistle, lasting about 1 sec, going from high to low pitch.
immediately following, a very raspy, hoarse "bark", which lasts a little less than 1 sec. and is repeated usu. 2-4 times.
Moved through the woods with ease and noiseless. would whistle and bark, then move about 100 feet and repeat. sometimes further. With 5-10 sec between sounds. Was probably 75-100 feet in front of me to begin with traveling from back of property to front, staying in woods line by at least 25-80 feet. All lasted approx. 30 minutes. Then began again a few hours later, lasting for about an hour. This happened the other night, and we heard it again about a week earlier around midnight.

The "bark" sounds similar to what a bobcat growl sounds like, so I think it would be capable of the noise. Or possibly a fox. What's really got me stumped is the whistle, which preceeds almost all the bark sound.

Any clues??

Totally a guess, I'm sure it is wrong, but owls can make some strange noises. Just a thoutht????????

Revenue agent!!

No one said Chupacabra or Bigfoot yet so I'll throw those out as 2 likely suspects

Ccoyote with a frog stuck in his throat? On second thought if this happened twice, it must be a stupid coyote with a frog stuck in his throat.

pups being trained to hunt. just a thought.

I really don't know just from your description, but gray fox pups can make a racket that if you've never heard them you would never guess it came from a fox pup. Screech owls are another little critter that makes an unusual sound.

Owl may make sense. I dunno. We have bigfeet around here, and I know what they sound like, so I know it's not them, but I'm not ruling out the Chupacabra!

I did manage to get a recording of the sucker tonight. I'll admit, it's not a particularly good recording. It was pretty far away, so many dang bugs chirping, and only caught the whistle once. Then it quit. Although there was another one "calling" back to this one, probably 1/2 mile away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itjBmfka_K4

what is it?? I'm spooked!

Cicada.

Sounds like a fox bark to me...

That is a 100% fox bark...That was a great recording!!!Chad

+1 loud little bass turds.

Here's a better recording with fewer of those stupid cicadas.
Took this at about 4.45 this morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1GBMAwmYpQ

Can a fox really whistle like that? Or has he got a pet owl that follows him everywhere. Typically, I hear more whistles than this...

I have heard a fox make that sound too!

Fantastic recording, Civil Engineer 3 !
It definitely sounds like a fox to me.
You recordings really capture the outdoor "echo" and "surround sound".
I would be interested to know what kind of equipment you used to record it.
Thanks.

PC

Wow, thanks for the kudos. I just used my camera which has a video record mode also. No external microphone. My house is in the middle of the woods, which probably contributes to the echo; I was standing on the deck and he was probably 100 yards out. I'm using a Canon Powershot S2 IS. Great picture camera, that apparently has good camcorder quality too. First time I tried that feature.

And thanks for the help, guys. i knew if anyone would know, it'd be someone on this site.

+1 RED FOX
had one wake me up in june doing exact same thing, there was a mother and 4 or 5 pups trying to get in the chicken coop....

It could be a barn owl they have so crazy sounds... did it sound anything like these...

http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Tyto&species=alba

If not I still think its some kind of owl.

Yup! Chad's dead on, on both counts

Yup, I got the spotlight on him last night. At least one of them; there are several calling back and forth. Plus I was spraying poison ivy over the weekend and found 5 separate dens! I may just get into fox hunting now!