Dear deer !

[Minouette]

I've just returned from a very unusual outing.  Just after 10.30pm I got scooped up by my landlords, bundled into their car and driven for about 20 minutes or so into deep woodland.  Then they parked and turned off all the lights.   Ooh err. 

I had no need to panic though... we just wound down our windows and sat and waited.  At last, we heard it.  Le brame du cerf!   In fact, lots of brames from all around us.  An incredible sound. 

Anybody else been lucky?

Minou

[Shane]

Isn't it wonderful, like something from the dark ages! We live on the edge of Vieillecour forest and at this time of year our little hamlet is really busy between the hours of 10.30 pm and 2.30 am in the morning, hords of "listeners". We have seen them camped at the side of the road with flasks of goodness knows what until the early hours.

We can't wait until the season begins to hear them, and you cannot describe the noise can you?

Yes we are lucky, they sometimes sound like they are outside our bedroom window, incroyable!!!

[Later]

I know this is really going to show how ignorant I am, but what svp is a brame?  My money is on a frog or a bird.

[Minouette]

Nope.... sorry... not even close!  It's a much larger creature than that!  A 'cerf' is a stag.. female is la biche.   At this time of year, for about a fortnight, the stags do something called 'bramer' (which translates as 'to bellow'), especially during the 'clair de la lune', ie bright full moon light.  Which is how come we ended up doing a moonlit flit into the woods!   

So, put rather basically, it's rutting season for deerfolk.  And, according to my chasseur landlords, there is usually one cerf for every five or six biches.  No wonder the cerf sounds so pleased with himself!  But as to describing the noise... practically impossible.  Suffice to say it makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck though.  The cerf we heard most of last night was about 100m away which I suppose, in deer leap measurement, was really rather close! 

So, nature lecture over, and I hope you get to hear this incredible sound one day.

Minou

PS The other amazing sight I have witnessed (not yet this year) is a huge flight of 'grue'.  These are cranes, in large numbers, who are also very noisy.  It really signifies the end of summer so hopefully it wont happen for a few weeks yet...

[Later]

Dear me, I should have read the name of your post

Sounds amazing.  We're getting some form of shreiking owl very close to the house in the early hours of the morning (in Blighty) ... 

[Minouette]

You have my sympathy re the owl!  Many years ago I moved from London - where I had become immune to traffic noise in the wee small hours - to rural Surrey which I had always assumed to be quiet as the grave come bedtime.  No such luck!  We had one of those owls (I believe it's the barn variety, but we didnt have a barn!) right outside our bedroom window.  I was quite convinced that some manic baby-murderer was on the loose.   Take heart.... it only took a few months to exchange traffic-immunity for the owl variety !

Minou

[Later]

We've been here for five going on six years now and I still notice unusual sounds.  The worst is the "coughing" and screaching of foxes which send our dogs into a barking frenzy - which is a bit tediuos at 2AM.

[Jonzjob]

'Later' said "Sounds amazing.  We're getting some form of shreiking owl very close to the house in the early hours of the morning (in Blighty) ... "

You will probably find that it is a 'Screech or Little Owl', they are not very big, but they make up for it with the noise they make!!! The Barn Owl doesn't make very much noise, as far as I can remember.  We used to get the foxes barking where we lived in the Cotswolds and the other noise they make sounds like a baby being strangled (not that I've ever tried it, thought about it a couple of times when my daughter became a teenager though!).

John.

[Minouette]

No, definitely a Barn Owl.  I've done a bit of rummaging on the web.......

Loads of info, if interested on: http://www.owlpages.com/species/owl_calls.html

And I cut and pasted the following from Hampshire-based Hawk Conservancy Trust's website:

The Barn Owl is known by a number of other names worldwide. We know it as the barn owl because it has, for some time, made its home in barns. It is known in some countries as the screech owl, which refers to its call.
Far from the plaintive hooting of the Tawny Owl, the Barn Owl's call is basically a loud hissing, with occasional screech- or scream-like noises. These however occur only when threatened, angered or as part of a pre-mating ritual.

 

And, having heard both owl and deer at short range, I can assure you that a rutting stag wins hooves-down in the decibel stakes!!

 

Minou (with smug smile) ;-)

[Later]

Dear Me, well I look forward to one day hearing a rutting stag.  All I can say about the Barn Owls around our place is that either they feel very threatened, or the population is soon to explode.   

They seem to talk to each other.  There's one down by the barns and it shreiks in reply to one up the hil about 70m away in the hedgerow and vv.