forest sentry

i took this photo of the waning sun setting over the research cut-block on my second night in the forest. as evening came on, i was reading in camp alone, as nathan was out in the field taking hemispherical photos for a couple of hours. the silence of the forest was occasionally animatted with the chatter of birds winding down for the day, when suddenly, from the dark forest at the bottom of the hill there came what sounded like someone playing a flute in the distance. at first i thought it was a bird, but quickly discarded that thought – though it had a definite pattern to it like a bird call: first a high note, then a low note then a run from high to low.

hearing this noise roused me from my book, and i came to the edge of the cutblock to look out, whereupon i decided to get my camera and try to take a few shots. i found out later that the fluting noise carrying in the dusk was the bugle of a male elk, common in that area during the fall.

i have been trying to locate a decent recording of one to share on this blog, but haven’t come up with anything that sounded like what i heard in the forest that night.