Possible encounter

Im on vacation in a small town with a population of 700 in North Dakota, about 30 minutes from the Canadian border, with my mom and my boyfriend. We go here every summer and this is the first time I've had an experience like this. Keep in mind my brother and his wife (whos house were staying at for the week) has 7 chickens that are all accounted for and put into the koop around sun set. It was around midnight and my boyfriend and I were on the deck in the backyard of my brother's house and we had already been talking about skinwalkers previously (yes a stupid idea) then after the conversation, switched topics over about 30 mins, in the middle of my boyfriends sentence, I heard "bauuuuuuuk" only raising in tone and pitch. I know what a chicken sounds like, it was not this. This was something trying to SOUND like a chicken. Chickens have a bit more of a gurgly and rough call, this was far too smooth and definitely did not come from a chickens vocal cords. It lasted for about 4-5 seconds. I instantly shushed my boyfriend and it stopped 2 ish seconds after he stopped talking. I asked him if he heard that and he said yes. About 5 seconds after the sound we heard what seemed to be one or two footsteps on the grass around 12 feet away from us in total, and about 5 feet away from the deck. Right where we had heard these steps was the exact spot that one of my family members had given his granddaughter a chicken to hold. i cant help but wonder if whatever 'entity' that made that noise may have seen that and thought it could lure someone to it. We sat in silence for a sec and then we started talking about what just happened. Minutes went by with both of us terrified to move. Eventually we gathered our stuff and went inside for the night. I'm open to any ideas on what this could have been, realistic and paranormal.