23-05-2025
Creepy cries in Kahala aren't ghosts
KAHALA, Hawaii (KHON2) — You are not alone if you have been hearing eerie wailing sounds late at night on Oahu.
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A strange noise recently startled a Kahala resident, but it turns out it is part of nature's annual ritual. The sound could be mistaken for a baby crying. Kahala resident Sherli Micik's son recently recorded it right outside their home just past midnight.
'It was kind of a moaning sound and it was very disturbing, but I'm sort of one of those people that says, 'You know, whatever it is, it's not hurting me,'' Micik said. 'And then my son comes in and says, 'We got to find out what this is!''
The haunting cry is not a baby in distress, it is the sound of the Wedge Tailed Shearwater, which means breeding season is here.
These native seabirds spend most of their life flying over the ocean and come ashore around this time of year to nest in burrows — often in coastal neighborhoods like Kahala and Windward Oahu.
'The calls attract other ones into an area that they feel like it's a safe neighborhood for them to raise their baby,' said Hawaii Wildlife Center president Linda Elliott. 'And so you'll hear at night they won't be in trees, they'll be on the ground.'
The birds return to the same areas each year, with their numbers increasing in recent times.
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'And those sounds go from sounding like babies in distress to moaning. And it is, you know, kind of gives you that chicken skin at night when you're walking out and you're hearing all of this,' Elliott said.
It was a mystery that grew more unsettling by the night until Micik learned the sounds were just part of the Islands' natural charm.
'Only when it was dark, usually between midnight and sunrise and who knew what these creatures were,' she said. 'I love nature and the fact that I wish they'd just hurry up and breed! You don't have to keep making that noise.'
Experts said the Shearwaters will quiet down by November, once their nesting season ends and the chicks fly out to sea for the first time. Until then, the night may sound a little wilder than usual.
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