What manner of animal is making this horrible noise?

September 4, 2007 8:53 PM

Dear GOD what is making that racket in the tree outside my house?

I'm in a suburb of Toronto, and this thing has been making this exact noise over and over, all night long, for the past week or so.

Listen to it here

It's a bad recording, made it with my laptop, but hopefully someone can identify it. I think it might be a squirrel but I've NEVER heard one this persistent and loud.

posted by geodave to pets & animals (10 answers total)

dude those are KATYDIDS!

and yea, they are loud as hell.
posted by lonefrontranger at 8:58 PM on September 4, 2007

Holy, that's exactly what it is.

You're a genius!
posted by geodave at 9:03 PM on September 4, 2007

also, here's a soundfile link of a common katydid.
posted by lonefrontranger at 9:05 PM on September 4, 2007

heh, not a genius... merely grew up in the midwest and had many sleepless nights thanks to the li'l green bastages. enjoy!
posted by lonefrontranger at 9:06 PM on September 4, 2007

So this noise; a Katydid it?
posted by davejay at 11:08 PM on September 4, 2007 [2 favorites]

Pretty amazing that all that noise comes from a little green bug, eh? If you relax and actually listen to it, you can get drawn into the rhythm and soon enough find yourself writing songs in that tempo. Or you can count sheep in a measured cadence. Really, it can be quite comforting, like it's the katydid's way of saying, "All is well. All is well. All is well." Sleep tight.
posted by acorncup at 11:46 PM on September 4, 2007

Ahem. If you're interested, you can hear a lot more katydid songs at this fabulous MetaFilter post!

(Total self-link.)
posted by trip and a half at 12:18 AM on September 5, 2007

"All is well. All is well. All is well."

Didn't Homer Simpson invent a fire alarm along those lines?
posted by Reggie Digest at 4:44 AM on September 5, 2007

@Reggie
Yeah, the "Everything's OK Alarm". It makes a (smoke detector) noise when everything's OK.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 4:53 AM on September 5, 2007

Yeah, those things have been annoying the crap out of me, too.

When I first noticed them, I thought someone in an apartment out the back of mine was using some kind of bench saw...
posted by Brockles at 5:59 AM on September 5, 2007