What’s scratching at my door at night?

[Helgathehairy]

This is a bit of a weird one that has creeped me out a bit.

About 2 weeks ago, in the middle of the night, I hears DH moving around the house and opening a window. I got up to see what was going on and he was half way out the living room window trying to see the front door. He said he’d heard something scratching. He couldn’t see anything. He didn’t want to open the door in case it was a rat that would run into the house. Anyway couldn’t see anything and we went back to bed.

Happened again a few days later, still couldn’t see anything. I hadn’t heard any scratching at this point.

Last night I was awake because DD had gotten up and I’d put her back to bed. A little while later I heard tapping and I thought she was playing with something so got up to go find out. I realised the noise was coming from the kitchen instead though and went to investigate. It stopped when I turned the kitchen light on but started again and it was coming from the back door. Went and turned the outside light on and the noise stopped but then started scratching!! About ankle height. Couldn’t see anything and it stopped after a few seconds.

What on Earth is it??? We have a golden retriever who hasn’t really reacted at all when this happens. DH said the first time he heard the scratching the dog looked at the door so he heard it but didn’t even bother getting up.

We can’t see the bottom of the door, it’s a wooden door with a window at eye level so we can’t see straight down.

I’m creeped out after hearing it for myself last night!

[FluffyKittensinabasket]

Birdie Friend.

[Helgathehairy]

I don’t think we have squirrels where I live.

Birdie Friend, not sure If I’m thinking of the right thread, thought that was about a badge?

[Pertella]

The Tailypo

[gamerchick]

Well it's obviously a critter. Something getting ready for hibernation maybe?

[VenusClapTrap]

@FluffyKittensinabasket

Birdie Friend.

[Pinkywoo]

@FluffyKittensinabasket noooooooooooooo!

OP do you have a selfie stick you can poke out of the window to video whatever it is? My guess would be a fox not a horribly disturbing demon badge.

[AriettyHomily]

Where do you live? Squirrels are pretty much everywhere in the UK

Im guessing ratty though

[Helgathehairy]

pertella I hadn’t heard of that legend before. I feel quite sorry for it now, it just wanted its tail back! But i don’t live in the US or in a cabin so I don’t think it’s that!

[Helgathehairy]

I live in Ireland.

[picklemewalnuts]

Could be a hedgehog foraging. Or a branch of a bush.

[Cheeseycheeseycheesecheese]

I think some sort of little creature. Like pp said, do you have ca selfie stick you can stick out the window to see?

[Thebreadsouth]

I have a spider that lives in my door frame. You only ever see her when the doors open and she never moves. We've named her Dora.

Could it be some sort of insects in the door frame? Not sure if that would cause a tapping though. Do you have moss outside the door? The seagulls sit on our roof and fling patches of moss on our front doorstep sometimes.

[LeaveMyDamnJam]

Cathy, calling for Heathcliff.

[81Byerley]

My old cat used to scratch at the next door neighbour's door. Originally she'd go through the cat flap and eat their cat's food, (and scratch at their bedroom door if the dish was empty!!!!) so they started locking the cat flap at night, so then she'd scratch at the door to be let in. I had to keep her in at night in the end.

[Helgathehairy]

I don’t have a selfie stick but if this keeps up I’ll get one. We have had hedgehogs in the garden and there are lots of farm cats around.

I don’t think it’s insects or birds.

[CouldBeOuting]

Get yourself a trail camera. That’s what we did when we kept finding random food items in our garden - turned out to the little sh#t from a couple of doors up aiming for our pond!

We’ve also got shots of foxes and toads at home and badgers, dear & boar on holiday....

[rosiethehen]

Might be a wandering cat trying to cadge a meal. Rats are surprisingly noisy when they're doing their ratty activities.

[LongBlobson]

Hedgehog I reckon.

Everything sounds louder at night. I was convinced we had a mouse under our tent once, turned out to be a beetle.

[Xiaoxiong]

Ireland certainly seems populated with a surfeit of things that make scary noises at night - Google tells me it could be a pooka, merrow, kelpie, far darrig, dullahan, fear gorta, banshee or abhartach.

Or you could have a wasps nest in the wall cavity

[Luckingfovely]

We've had marauding hedgehogs waking us up in the night over the last few weeks! I reckon it's those damn spiky buggers.

[troppibambini]

I had similar an awful scratchy noise on my roof at night I thought it was squirrels and ignored it. Then I heard it in the dining area of the kitchen it was behind a radiator cover thing we have which covers the underfloor heating pipes, turned out that the builders who did work on our house before we bought it hadn't capped of a sewer pipe properly and rats were coming in under the floor up the cavity wall insulation and around in our loft. It took 3 months and £1500 to get rid of the bastards.
Anyway I'm sure yours is a lovely cute hedgehog or something...

[RedRiverShore]

What you need is an infra red wildlife camera trained at the door, we film loads of wildlife nocturnal activities with ours, they are on Amazon for about £30-40, we love ours. We did use it when someone was putting nice things on our doorstep during lockdown