Dark skies and Wolf Song

Everytime we go out on the lawn at Bondi to look at Stars with a group of people, something wonderful happens. Once you get away from the city lights, the stars sparkle and dance, and on a clear night in the summer people can marvel at the Milky Way, watch the red/green flash of Antares, see the double star in the handle of the Big Dipper, find the Andromeda Galaxy 12.5 million light years away. So many things that you can't see in the city, because of the light pollution that dims out all but the brightest stars, and makes the heavens meagre.
Nancy spends a lot of the summer outside under the night sky with groups of our guests. Armed with a laser pointer that reaches forever, night vision glasses and binoculars, she does a Star Tour that our guests seem to really enjoy.
And what night outdoors in north Muskoka would be complete without talking about the neighbours -- the owls, loons and wolves that so often sing in the dark.
Sure enough, the evening began with loons, giving their familiar tremolo call while we were looking at the Big Dipper and North Star.
After we moved across the lawn to look at the Summer Triangle, the sky started to cloud over, so we talked about the wolf pack that has been in pretty close this summer. It sounds like a big pack, with lots of youngsters, and Kyle saw a wolf cub run across the road last week. We talked about the Algonquin Park timber wolves, and how every week in August the naturalists take people out for the world famous Wolf Howl. We talked about how the deeper the howl, the bigger the wolf, as a general rule. And then, Nancy gave her best wolf impersonation and howled. Now, she's a rank amateur in Wolf Song Karaoke -- the Park naturalists have wolf-speak perfected. All the same, some nights, it just works.
We got an answering howl -- from the west side of the property, and very close. A single wolf, with a deep voice. An amazing sound, for the group of about 20 people clustered on the dark lawn.
And then, from the east side of the property, the rest of the pack started up in response, and the wolves howled back and forth to each other for several minutes, putting on a fantastic show.
When it all quieted down, we talked about owls, and Owl Speak, hooting for both the Barred Owl and the Great Horned Owl. Tonight, we had no answering owls, but we've got both these species in the woods around us. Lots of the kids had a go at hooting -- Who Cooks for You? Who Cooks for You AAAALLLL??? (Barred Owl) and, Who's Cooking Chicken, Who, Who, Who???? (Horned Owl)
Then, since we'd lost our stars to the clouds, and just for the heck of it, Nancy was talked into trying one more Howl. And -- I love when a plan comes together -- yes, both the lone wolf to the west, and the pack to the east answered again. The lone howl had moved considerably to the north, but the pack was still in the same place, and still very close. And sang most harmoniously.
Now, that's an experience to cherish.