Comments on: What manner of animal is making this horrible noise?

Question: What manner of animal is making this horrible noise?

geodave — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:53:11 -0800

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.

By: lonefrontranger

lonefrontranger — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:58:11 -0800

dude those are KATYDIDS!

and yea, they are loud as hell.

By: geodave

geodave — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:03:54 -0800

Holy, that's exactly what it is.

You're a genius!

By: lonefrontranger

lonefrontranger — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:05:21 -0800

also, here's a soundfile link of a common katydid.

By: lonefrontranger

lonefrontranger — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:06:39 -0800

heh, not a genius... merely grew up in the midwest and had many sleepless nights thanks to the li'l green bastages. enjoy!

By: davejay

davejay — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 23:08:13 -0800

So this noise; a Katydid it?

By: acorncup

acorncup — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 23:46:14 -0800

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.

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:18:12 -0800

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

(Total self-link.)

By: Reggie Digest

Reggie Digest — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 04:44:56 -0800

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

Didn't Homer Simpson invent a fire alarm along those lines?

By: ArgentCorvid

ArgentCorvid — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 04:53:02 -0800

@Reggie
Yeah, the "Everything's OK Alarm". It makes a (smoke detector) noise when everything's OK.

By: Brockles

Brockles — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:59:52 -0800

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...