I was walking on Parcel 5 today at dusk, and I heard a VERY creepy
screaming/wailing screech that was too close for comfort. I don't know
whether it was a bird, mammal, human, or demon from hell, but I race walked
the rest of the way back to the parking lot. My dogs wanted to chase after
the noise, but I stopped them... having no idea what it was. I am fairly
sure I heard the same sound in the woods around my own house which is about
a mile from P5 a few nights ago, and it even gave me the creeps from inside
the house, but again the dogs wanted to go right out after it. I've spent
the last hour and a half looking up animal screams and haven't really found
anything that much like it. I know red foxes are a common answer when
people ask about a creepy noise at night, and I've heard foxes often around
my house, and I'm fairly sure it was NOT that.

I am sure a description probably won't help unless anyone has an idea
already what it might be., but it only lasted about one second, and it rose
and then fell.  It had the quality of a human scream, clear and not at all
husky. I wondered if it was a person hiding off the trail waiting to scare
the hell out of the next person that came along, because it sounded like a
noise someone MIGHT make to scare someone. It didn't sound like distress to
me. It seems odd that I've never heard this sound before ever, and I've
heard it twice in a few days, and only a mile away from each other.

A couple creatures that occurred to me were a whitetail deer, though it was
not the normal startled Chooof sound.. it was much clearer and human.. But
I've read that occasionally they do scream, but there are no recordings
that I could find online. Lots of the chooofing sound, though. Another one
that I most recently found was Barred Owl screaming. There's only one
recording that I could find, and a little bit of it sounds like that could
be it, though it wasn't exactly the same, and it didn't last anywhere near
as long.

Does anyone have any idea? I'd really like to know out of curiosity, but
also so I'm not terrified if I'm out there when the light is getting low!

Side note, there's the biggest Pileated Woodpecker tree excavation I've
ever seen out there. Its about 4 feet long and 6" wide, 4 inches deep, and
looks freshly done. Large pile of fresh looking wood chips under it. Maybe
the scream was a Pileated Woodpecker who has gone completely insane! (Not
really considering that possibility)