UKC

Hardly a more appropriate day...

Walking Kelp in the woods of Pollok Park this morning, on the mountain bike tracks, we pass a tree. Kelp stops and points / smells it, backs away, moves in. She's suspicious and I realise why: there's a knocking sound coming from the tree! Like its hollow and someone is 'on the other side'. Seriously, a freaking knocking sound, clear as Kelp's warning growl she's giving the tree.

I check for woodpeackers, can't see any. Anyway, I am familiar with the sound woodpeckers make and this isn't it: wrong pitch, no rhythm, too random and not repeating in a pattern. There's no wind and no movement of the tree that I can see and it doesn't sound like any branches moving against each other I've heard before (usually more of a 'squeal' or rubbing sound and doesn't travel down the trunk. This sound was not coming from above, but form the trunk in front of me.

Any suggestions? I've been walkng in Pollok woods for 10 years and never heard this before (or in any other wood).

Wood boring insects? Though it seemed too loud and non-localised for that.

In reply to Flinticus:

Death Watch beetle perhaps.

In reply to Flinticus:

It was probably a dryad.

In reply to Flinticus:

It's Autumn, trees are pulling back into the Earth. Did the short walk from New Lanark to Bonington Linn and back yesterday. Autumn colours were incredible.

In reply to Flinticus:

Sounds more like a three eyed raven than a woodpecker. Winter is coming.

In reply to Flinticus:

An owl banging its head in despair as its teenagers refuse to leave the nest?

In reply to Flinticus:

Num num has finally had as much as he can take from you know who and has imprisoned her in a hollow tree trunk in the hope that her like will never be seen again.

In reply to Flinticus:

What about a nuthatch opening a wedged nut or even a woodpecker foraging rather than drumming as a display? I've been puzzled by a sound like this and it turned out to be a nuthatch.

In reply to Flinticus:

Do you think it might have been a squirrel?

In reply to Flinticus:

What sort of tree and how large? If it was a large Beech or Lime tree especially I'd keep clear as they are both known for dropping limbs.

In reply to Flinticus:

Probably death watch beetle.

In reply to ring ouzel:


I thought the knocking (which I understood to be a mating behaviour) was more a spring/summer thing. Isn't it a bit late in the year? Mind you, Michaela Strachan kept telling me last week that this autumn was warmer than usual (not noticeably so round here IMO).

I also had an idea that they have a particular penchant for oak. The OP doesn't state what species of tree it was, unfortunately.

In reply to Flinticus:

It was a winter climber coming out of hibernation.

In reply to Flinticus:

Hidden camera filming your reaction for a TV program.

In reply to Flinticus:

I take it that you have never heard a Triffid?