So, there I was having a lovely evening out at the astronomy club's observing site in Funk's Grove. I had gone out to take another time-lapse sequence of the sunset, and the clouds actually cleared out enough to get out my binoculars and log a couple of Messier objects. Aside from the persistent wind that we've been plagued with the past week, it was quite a pleasant evening. I had the place to myself aside from the bats chattering in the rafters. I like bats. They keep to themselves, mostly, and they eat bugs.

And then...

I started packing up cause the clouds started moving in again and since there was nobody else around, I turned on the lights in the shelter which apparently upset what I have only been able to ascertain was a Barn Owl perched in the treeline about 50 yards away. Now I don't know if anyone else has ever heard one of these things, but they sound eerily like a woman screaming. Here's an MP3 Example. And they're very loud. If it had just been one call and stopped, I don't think it would have been a problem, but it just kept going.

Suffice it to say, I was caught quite off guard and while there was no girly scream, this was the only time that I can recall that I have ever involuntarily made a sound. It was a guttural, primal sound that I think scared me more than the owl. I can honestly say that thing scared the daylights outta me. My hackles were still up by the time I had driven halfway home.

Let's just say I felt a little like that fella off to the left here, and my eyes were probably as big.