Spotting

Well that's creepy.

Malcom and Scott, you guys are right. Unfortunately I'll have to go back to the same area and camp out for a few days, maybe take a few days off work... haha It also helps that I now have a DSLR. The above picture was taken with a old point and shoot. Thanks for all of your insight guys

Short-eared owls are known to flock in winter so possibly do to a lesser extent in summer, just like many other birds. They also hunt mainly in the early morning/late evening so possibly roost together in loose flocks at night. Hawks and Falcons also have partially forward-looking eyes.
I am not saying these are birds and not mammals, just that I will not discount birds. Many mammals will climb into trees. All animals can sense when something unusual (like a person camping) is nearby and will face in that direction if they have forward looking eyes, but in a 90º direction if they have eyes more to the sides of the face.
The best solution is go back to the same place at the same time of year to camp and set up something to take time exposure pictures of what is out there at night. I would not suggest using flash, rather a time exposure of 30-60 seconds every 5 minutes. You can experiment with different settings beforehand. Many animals stay motionless for long periods of time unless they are feeding.

To be honest Arya, I don't know. When I changed it from the category "other" to mammals, I was motivated by the fact that I knew it was vertebrate (and possibly deer), and therefore NOT "other" which refers to those organisms which don't fit into the other existing categories (i.e. for all practical purposes, invertebrates other than arthropods). I admit I did see the outline of deer as mentioned by Karen (but was that wishful thinking?). I played around with the images and came up with one that looked like owl faces (using "find all edges"). Again, I wasn't convinced that that was anything but wishful thinking. So your looking at animals that are gregarious. That could include deer, or even raccoons! I don't know if some species of owls might congregate like that or not. Color of eyeshine could help narrow it (yellow for owls, white for deer) but that is not available. Some perhaps interesting links http://retirednatureweaver.blogspot.com/... * http://ask.metafilter.com/136950/What-mi... * http://goexploreit.blogspot.com/2013/10/... * http://www.flickr.com/photos/zonotrichia... * http://www.rain.org/~mkummel/stumpers/20... ... I used to conduct night surveys using eyeshine ... for crocodiles :-)

This reminds me of a time when I was camped at Bumi Hills in Zimbabwe some years ago. Shining a torch into the blackness of night, hundreds of beaming eyes were staring back at me... and the only thing I could hear was my heart beating. I understand what you mean by "a little haunting!" A little bit exciting too.

Check out this spooky spot from over a year ago: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/125...

So cool spot! love it!

Or they could be further back, and up a bit of slope. I've never seen that many owls together

The reason I suggested owls is that some are higher than others, even above others, as if in a tree. I see nothing in the picture to give any clue. Apart from the eyes all that can be seen is the patterning of the noise spectrum of the sensor in the camera.

So Scott, you agree with Karen's theory that they are deer?

So mysterious !

Moved to the Mammals category :-)

Karen: the picture Malcolm made, does show a outline of a deer.

Bill: The camera was my flashlight that night! haha
Karen: possibly could be deer.
Malcolm: This was before I had a DSLR, I was using my point and shoot.

Just brightness and highlights, have a play with the original, you might get better. Next time put he camera somewhere steady and leave the shutter open for up to a minute. Keep the ISO as low as possible, 100 or less, you might get good results.

deer

Creepy:) the first thing I would have gone for was my flashlight, not my camera ha ha!

Never thought of that Malcolm. Did you just up the contrast, highlights, and brightness?

Check the 2nd pic, could be owls

Yeah, your imagination runs wild when you see something like this alone in the woods!

whoah...