Stepped out last night and caught this noise coming from someplace across the pond, but centered in a couple of different regions. It surged and faded, at times going completely silent, so I’m sure it was critters of some kind, but I’m just not sure what. Take a listen before we go any further:
Noises in the night
I had to increase this by 10db and it’s still quiet – headphones are recommended. You’ll also have to do a little self-editing, because I have no way of doing this myself, but there’s recorder hiss of course, and then the lowest hum in there is from traffic not far enough away (I’m always amazed at how far car sounds travel – it’s annoying.)
My guess is frogs, though it was almost exactly like the muttering of ducks – it’s just that I’ve never heard them this active after dark and never going on that long, plus it’s too repetitve. It was quite warm last night after an almost-hot day, and this was still early evening though well after sundown, about 8:45 PM EST. Right in the middle, you can hear a solitary croak from one of the chorus frog species, the sound of someone opening a creaky cupboard, but the others are something that I’ve never heard before, perhaps only from not being on the side of a pond at the right time of night, the right time of year. If you recognize it, let me know – I’ll be doing my own searches.