About 12 years ago I lived in a small rental house in West Seattle.
Racoons were regular visitors to the roof (in fact I suspected at
times that they were nesting under the eaves). One night there was a
quarrel, a wild scurrying with lots of vocalization. Finally, there
was a galloping sound across the length of the roof, then a skidding
sound, and, from what I could gather, some poor raccoon flew off the
side of the house.

And then there was silence.

At 09:13 PM 1/20/2009, jeff gibson wrote:
>I thought I knew how loud quarreling Raccoons could get ( having
>heard a few 'arguments' over the years), but I was wrong. I've just
>experienced one of the loudest displays of animal noise I've ever
>heard - right in my own backyard.
>
>A real knock- down -drag- out fight between an indeterminate number
>of coons up in our big English Laurel tree - the whole tree was
>thrashing around out there in the cold dark fog. Finally could see
>one coon forced out on a limb, when it was pushed out of the tree to
>fall about 15 feet to the ground.
>
>The quality of sound was something akin to having ten Caspian Terns
>screaming full bore at a distance of 20 feet. Truly amazing.
>
>
>Jeff Gibson
>
>
>
>Everett WA