"Judith in France" wrote
David in Normandy wrote:
While working in the garden over the last few days I've heard a sound
I've never heard before. It sounds like a cross between dry leaves
rustling and the tail of a rattle snake shaking - but a lot fainter
sound than such a snake. Not that there are any rattle snakes here in
Northern France! Any ideas what it is?

The sound is audible from around 20 feet away from whatever it is. The
sound lasts barely a second or two and is repeated at approximately 30
second to minute intervals. On following the sound to its origin it
stops. There is not sign of an animal so it must be an insect in the
grass. I have very sharp hearing and the sound is nothing like the
crickets we get here.

Any ideas what it is?


Perhaps a mouse, vermin amongst dry leaves? If you want a laugh, we
were woken up last night by a slight intermittent noise, we couldn't
identify it, so went back to sleep. This morning at intervals of
around 30 seconds there was a high microsecond noise. I said it was
the death watch beetle in the beams come back to life as they make an
odd noise. Eventually, we traced it to the third floor, it was the
carbon monoxide meter beeping as it was at the end of it's life!
Moral of the story, buy one for each floor not just one for the house
as it was barely audible.

You only need one near a gas appliance I was told.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden