I was conducting an all-night time lapse in the middle of the mountains, miles from anyone and where no-one knew where I was.
I was surrounded by dead trees with pure-black shadow all around me.
About 2:30 in the morning, I started hearing...and my neck hairs are going up as I write this.... a multitude of children whispering and giggling.....
Talk about freak out. I am most comfortable in the bush and always feel safe. Not this night. I wrestled with my powers of logic for around half an hour, debating whether I should pack up and go home. The sound was not in my head. It was very faint, but definitely real. Of course I was thinking, "Baz, don't be a pansy. Of course there is a perfectly logical explanation for the sound".
All of a sudden, without warning.... AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!
A breeze blew through at ground level and I heard all the dead.....
....sticks on the trees rubbing together. They squeaked, squealed and chattered in a cacophony of wooden voices, sounding EXACTLY like children whispering and giggling.
I went home later to have a quiet heart-attack.
Who else has a scary astro dark-site story where your imagination has reduced you to a whimpering four-year-old curled up in the foetal position?
My first night up at a dark site near Katoomba with a few other fellows had tiny insectiverous bats fluttering around us as they chased the mozzies we attracted. An hour into the session all was quiet and everyone busy with their thing, when one of these nocturnal hunters flew right under my nose - in the dim light of the evening I saw a black shadow shoot past my eyes and felt the flutter of the beating wings on my face!
I felt my backbone decalcify instantly! Bloody thing is only the size of a matchbox, but, man, did it spook me, .
Before I came to Oz I observed at a small national park outside Glasgow. One night I kept hearing shuffling and rustling noises around me. At one point they seemed to come from near a picnic table and I thought I saw a black shape moving around, much too big for a cat or fox. It disappeared and for a few seconds I thought it had gone, until something touched my hand...
...and I found the park ranger's black labrador licking my fingers and wanting to play!
Belanglo State Forest, the site of some of the most horrific murders in Australian history.
Earlier that day we'd found a knife on the ground while bush walking off track. That was chilling in itself.
That night, while outside, on my own, (everyone else was in the cabin) I heard some thing walking on leaves and breaking twigs. Something quite heavy.
I froze.....squeezing my eyes shut, trying to make my night vision come to me faster.
I can hear it coming closer. Couldn't be a possum, it was too heavy.
All I could think of was that damn knife and who had dropped it. visions of some poor person running away, being chased by the owner of the knife.
It was really close now.....
then I heard the sound of grass being pulled and chewed. My night vision had improved enough for me to see that it was a Wombat, only a few feet away from me.
I can't find the pics I took of the wombat, but I present exhibit A...the knife.
Belanglo State Forest, the site of some of the most horrific murders in Australian history.
Earlier that day we'd found a knife on the ground while bush walking off track. That was chilling in itself.
That night, while outside, on my own, (everyone else was in the cabin) I heard some thing walking on leaves and breaking twigs. Something quite heavy.
I froze.....squeezing my eyes shut, trying to make my night vision come to me faster.
I can hear it coming closer. Couldn't be a possum, it was too heavy.
All I could think of was that damn knife and who had dropped it. visions of some poor person running away, being chased by the owner of the knife.
It was really close now.....
then I heard the sound of grass being pulled and chewed. My night vision had improved enough for me to see that it was a Wombat, only a few feet away from me.
I can't find the pics I took of the wombat, but I present exhibit A...the knife.
Oh MAN! I was wondering where I had dropped that.......
The firth of Thames , Coramandel , NZ . 1987
Way after midnight , perfect dark and dark adapted eyesight ,, zero vision out side of whats in the eyepiece .
Sirius was casting a shadow ,,
No wombats in NZ , but we have the ' Coromandel Hairy Man ! '... man !!!
And my Darling heard HIM!, over there !!! She said !! .
I had been jiving her all night about Mad Mike . So ...
..... On with the Dolphin torch she did ! , gone was the night vision , and here be a possom ! ... ha ha ha
Had to laugh .
I'm sure that possom seen more than both of us before the blinding light hit him .
True story .
Brian.
.
mums place has had foxes, wild dogs, snakes, various other things that are creepy in the night.. hearing sounds in the dead of night with a long run to the house really creeps you out.
In summer I have a habit of mowing from sunrise till around 7am.. It was a magic night and I was out till around 1am. went to bed for a hew hours of shuteye, woke again around 4am and went and mowed.. after about 30mins of mowing I ran over a large brown snake.. not 1 m from where I was all night! it could have been there next to me sleeping all freaking night!
the grass always is very low where I observe now.. just in case.
Here in Snake Valley the only sounds I hear close-by in the pitch black while observing are horses or sheep farting, and the sound of them walking on the grass.
Distant sounds are more chilling though as I sometimes hear Koalas and Possums growling and it sounds like a close-up wild dog.
Once, when living in Enfield (in the country south of Ballarat) I heard a sniffle right next to my ear. I turned fast towards the sound and hit noses with a Kangaroo smelling me and it scared the crappers out of both of us
But the worst stories I hear about are from the Americans I talk to nightly.
Many of them go out observing with Firearms!
One guys back fence of his property is on the Mexican Border and he sees the Mexicans running across his property atleast once a week, and at night whilst observing he can swear he hears them creeping around near him. He sees their footprints in the dirt the next day in the daylight
and Lee who said he goes out to a nice quiet spot for the darker sky and has been shot at on several occasions!
Another one who got mugged while Imaging in a dark spot away from all population!
Another one (the one we worry about the most) is Carol, an elderly lady living on her own out in wilds of Montana with no neighbours within miles.
She often gets Bears while she is observing and has to rapidly pack up and lock herself inside with Shotgun in hand.
Lately she has had a Mountain Lion hanging around and she has a new little puppy to keep her company and she said that observing is a real scarey thing knowing the Lion is around and could get her puppy or her.
We have Spiders and snakes, Labradors and Kangaroos. They get Bears, Rattlers, Mountain Lions, Moose, Muggers and Mexican illegals
Not much has frightened me here in Auss except the odd Possum or bat screeching, but one time I was in North Carolina in the USA at a friends place up in them there hills of the Appalachian Range ,and was binocular observing the northern sky all on my own at around eleven o'clock at night on the edge of a forest when I heard twigs breaking and grass rustling, I ran down the hill as fast as my legs would carry me,even falling over a couple of times,couldn't get into the house quick enough and lock the door.
Next morning went back to the place where I had been the night before and saw Large Bear paw prints all over the place
When I told my friend who I was staying with, he said quite nonchalantly
Oh yes there are plenty of bears round here
The one night, while relaxing and settling down to a night of observing, I got a cold shiver down my spine which was a tell-tale sign that something was amiss.........
Then I realised......I forgot to put my jumper on.......
Anyways, once I had put on some warm clothing, I spent many hours wandering around the sky revisiting all my old favourites while I kept an ear out for the wild African night time sounds everyone is so familiar with...............you know, the screaming kids, the odd gunshot and............oh wait, wrong story.........I meant the giggling Hyenas, the Grunting Lions, the rustling of the bush as a lost ranger passes by in his Landcruiser.......and of course, the nagging missus......
Suddenly............a menacing hush befell the African plains.....even the crickets fell silent............. I all at once became aware of the fact that there was a seething, vicious, predator on the prowl in the dark African night closing in on me......I froze on the spot..........too afraid to move, lest I become the prey of the night.........I saw the ugly face, the intense gaze from fiery eyes, the steam from the nostrils like a Wildebeest on the run........then it happend.......
All I remember hearing was: "It's your turn to wash the dishes so you better get your lazy butt back here before you start playing with your bl&&$y toys and get your chores done. Why do I always have to do everything around here and pick up after you lazy, goodfernuthin' slobs....and by the way, don't forget to take out the garbage and your new little puppy dog has pooped in the passage so you'd better get some cleaning stuff and sort it out............I was traumatised.
Frankly, I'd prefer to get eaten by a real lion or trampled by an elephant....at least it'll only happen once and that'll be that.......
well its not really scary but while having a look with the binos
at 3.00 am at minnie waters a dingo did decide to howl at the night fairly close to where i was .
Two times I have been scared observing:
1. Near Singleton, NSW, when I was 12 or so. It was a dark site and I was with my brother (17?) and his 4" SCT. Suddenly a MASSIVE meteor flashes across the sky and breaks up in view. Seconds later a massive thunder clap. I was really scared, but minutes later (when I knew the Earth wasn't going end) it was really exciting.
2. At night in rural Zambia - very dark (no electricity in the district at the time). We had lost two chickens to army ants the week before (our neighbours lost 14 chickens to the ants). We had had a snake inside the house a few weeks prior that passed under my legs (my wife got it with a cricket bat), scorpions in the toilet every day (how did they get there??) and kanyenye were about (huntsmen size spiders that charge humans on site). Suddenly while observing I remembered all the things of the previous weeks and I started feeling things go up my legs when nothing was there.... so I left the darkest skies in the world (no electricity for 250km radius) and ran back to bed and tucked in the mozzie nets REALLY tight!!
I had a possum growling in the dark at maybe 1m from me. I didn't know what it was at the time and it scared the hell out of me. Sounded like a wild cat or something much bigger.
The other one was a roo jumping in front of me in the dark while I was looking up the milky way. I must have startled it and it just bolted out of the bushes.
AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!
.
The firth of Thames , Coramandel , NZ . 1987 
all we have to worry about are a few snakes, Roos, Koala's and Bats and Dingoe's 
