Outside Looking In

Last night, I returned home late from work (late dusk) and went out to see if the hen house was secured. The coop is a former fenced-in dog kennel behind the garage with a 6 foot wide cement slab running along the garage side and inside the gate, I built a fence and another gate to keep the chickens off the cement - or more accurately, to keep their poop off the cement. Tuesday night I found the interior door unlatched and now I'm OCD about it being locked.
Like I said, it was pretty near dark and I could hear some clucking that sounded kind of like it was coming from under the coop where the dust bath is located. It was too dark to actually see much, so I reached under there and swiped my hand around to see if I could feel any chickens or hear them scramble to avoid me. Nothing, so I took down the ramp and latched the pophole (chicken-sized door).
This morning, after a night with temperatures in the mid-thirties, I was surprised to be greeted by a loudly clucking rooster. He danced around and rushed to meet me at the door, and when I let the girls out, he went into the hen house and ate a lot of feed. Poor guy, I have no idea where in the run he slept.
It happens that this morning was also very still and when he crowed a little later (8:45), I could hear it echoing off the buildings towards town. Yikes, we don't want to rile anyone up.
Now a flashlight is added to the "things I need on hand for chicken chores" list.