Stories of listening to the animals talk

Originally posted by SKITCH:
Great stories guys!        

I was going to type those words exactly!

Bisch

[Hummer3T]

I love calling animals, from elk to deer to birds while hunting or not.  

Best occurance was elk hunting, I followed a heard all morning and finally, lost them. they actually split up and I walked by them.  As the herd gathered together again they all were talking. Every elk had a unique voice and language.  I sat and listened, actually forgot that I was hunting and just listened.  I have called in lots of elk and talk to lots but never had a chance to sit in the middle of a herd yards away from twenty or so elk and had them talk their true language, undisturbed.

[Thumper Dunker]

If your going to go after some game you need to understand and speak their language. My dog talks to me all the time. Love being out there listening to the animals.

[fmscan]

Fat tony, I enjoyed your contribution to this great thread, thank you...

[SKITCH]

Hey Thumper....I knew you had a trick when it comes to all those Coyotes you take.  That damn dog calls them all in for ya doesn't he???    

Fmscan....Tony's a good guy and he really isn't fat.  He should just be Husky Tony!!  

Eric...that is some pretty interesting stuff.  I agree with RJones above, kinda creepy!!

[bofish-IL]

I have had red squirrels alert me too Turkey and Deer on many occasions. The warning calls go off the chart when a coyote comes through. Their calls  go ballistic when a bobcat comes through. You can actually track the coyote and bobcats direction from many other squirrels barking as the predator enters their areas.

I hate when the Grey squirrels start up because I have had them keep the shrieks up for 30 or 40 minutes non stop.

I always pickup my bow and stand up when a Squirrel starts sounding off.

[Hummer3T]

I have recently started to talk to the deer on my property (last 3 years).  Everyone you talk to says don't make human sounds but I thought I would try since a photography friend told me he does it (deer wispering). Everytime I see my deer or am sitting in the stand I talk very lightly, to my disbelief the deer that are usually alert totally calm down.  I guess animals are not so out of tune with our language.

[mangonboat]

I have a lot of turkey in my neighborhood and I love to be very still in their midst as a group passes, witness to the almost-imperceptible conversations they have going.

[mlsthmpsn]

I often find myself involuntarily "Pishing" when I am walking through the woods and hear a faint bird sound or a flit of feathers flying by. It's a sort of universal alarm call for birds, that beckons them to come out to the branch tips and have a looksy at who is making the call and at what it is directed.

I also like sitting and listening to ducks in the fall as they are in the process of pairing up. If you search for Mallard Male Display, you can see videos of them. They have a weird complex pattern of staring each other down and showng off their colors in large groups...and then one breaks and does a neck-bending, peep, while spitting water out to the sides and raising up out of the water...followed almost simultaneously by all the other males in the displaying group.

By studying these duck behaviors, I learned a ton on when to place decoys (throughout the season) into different groupings, so as to mimic what the flocks are doing in the wild. gets even the wariest of ducks to come in for a close inspection.

[SKITCH]

That's pretty cool MT

[Carcajou]

Ive been know to mimic Birds, Ravens, Crows, Owls and hawks with my voice or combination of whistles..I have been having fun calling barred owls and great Horned Owls with my voice for years,,now is a perfect time as the great Horned owls are entering breeding season, and I have a blast laying in the snow on a moonlit nite, and call the owls to within feet of my head on an overhead branch, all the while giggling like a little kid, tricking wildlife with nothing but my voice..my friends always ask me to crow call, and I have had fellas say they have never heard a more realistic voice call.
I also use crow calls to communicate with a hunting partner of mine, he uses a raven call in return..we use this while we are still hunting deer or Snowshoe Hare hunting, rather than 2 way radios, something I despise...This is a natural woods sound that does not alarm wildlife..
Snort-Wheeze, Buck Grunts and Doe bleats by voice also come in handy, I use them religiously.
Turkey hen yelps, cackles, and putts/purrs, can be mimicked also...try it! You'll like it!

[fmscan]

I've heard Scott above do his calls and he is really quite good at it. I never felt it was possible until I heard him do some of his calls.

[Killdeer]

No kidding, MT!

I pish in the woods a lot, something I learned from birders.
Stop laughing, you low-lifes!

Went pishing on the VA/WVA border and came up with indigo buntings and rose breasted grosbeaks. Profitable, I thought!

Killdeer

[mlsthmpsn]

I learned the technique in Ornithology for school many years ago now. Some of the lab practical exams were walk through the woods and fields with a pencil and note paper...Professors would say "that sound there, number 1....that bird there, number 2." last time out we had 37 birds to identify, mostly by sound.

I too mimic lots of birds, part of having to learn them for tests.

I once called some Great Horned Owls in to a campsite my wife (then girlfriend) and I were at... Those two proceeded to finish their "rendezvous" in the branch above us... Maybe 10' up.

Two large birds, making a ruckus like no other, flailing around on a 1" branch... All illuminated by firelight. Romantic.

[Gun]

Around here I watch/listen to the Magpies a lot. They follow Coyotes and let ya know where they are. Sometimes deer too. They have also beat me to a fresh kill.

BlueJays aren't as bad up here about warning everything else you're around. Not like in the Midwest.

[Ryman Cat]

Had this happen in MD many moons ago. I had a swamp stand in Cecilton Md. on a leased farm I had. I was getting ready to attempt shooing this 8 pt and getting ready to draw back. Problem I had was this squirrel was looking at me making eye contact in a tree above this deer causing a racket and I was saying to myself whats this thing trying to do alert the deer? He didn't seem to get deers attention until I watched him launch a nut at the deer and hit his back. That got the deers attension and the deer jumped and looked around. The deer was angled just enough not to present a shot so I had to let off and say no shot. The deer moved off at that point and there wasn't a peep out of this squirrel following that. That day this squirrel accomplished saving his brother from getting an arrow.LOL

[maineac]

Great stories, thanks for sharing!

[Fattony77]

Originally posted by fmscan:
Fat tony, I enjoyed your contribution to this great thread, thank you...

My pleasure! I'm glad I was able to contribute.

[Fattony77]

Originally posted by RJonesRCRV:
Fatyony, I too remember the accounts regarding Ishi understanding the animals.  That would take some serious time in the woods to get that good!

Absolutely. I told my ex-step daughter this story just last night, and she made an observation that I had missed: Ishi spent a few YEARS completely alone (at least without any HUMAN contact). They say that the best way to learn a language is complete immersion into that language. I would say that immersion doesn't get any more complete than being the only person around.