Two Knocks and a Whoop

In many ways the 2010 BFRO expedition to Tennessee was a real eye opener for me. It was my first formal (non-private) expedition and it was the first (and only to date) time I ever saw eye glow (saw it twice that night). While the recording results weren't great from the exped, I did manage to capture some good knocks and a few faint whoops. Here's one of the better ones.

On the last night of the expedition, sometime between 3 and 5 a.m. a wood knock was recorded near our camp (we were all asleep), a couple seconds later a distant knock responded, followed by a long whoop from the south.

A Knock and A Shriek

In 2012 I began a recording investigation in a new location here in Virginia. The recording conditions were very challenging. A lot of private property prevented me from getting closer to the area where most of the interesting vocals were coming from. Frequent car traffic on a nearby road often wiped out the audio. But every once in a while the mics would pick up a good vocal from the surrounding forest. And a handful of those made it into my "Best of 2012" collection.

This clip is a great demonstration of both the unsettling "shriek" that sasquatch have been suspected of emitting, and the wood knocks they often integrate into their vocals.

Morning Whoops

Over the years I've managed to capture a subtle type of vocal that I've come to nickname the "Morning Whoop". These whoops are normally gentler, understated, and don't readily resemble the louder, more raucous whoops that may be heard in the full darkness of night. Instead, these quick, soft spoken vocals seem intended to fit in quietly among the many peeps, tweets, and cackles of bird song that rise with the approach of dawn.

I've caught morning whoops similar to the two presented below in Georgia, and heard similar from other researchers in Michigan and Alabama. I've often wondered if they aren't an understated attempt by the vocalizers to keep track of each other shortly before they go to ground for the day light hours. Pure speculation on my part, but one day I hope we'll have the answer.

In the mean time, here are two morning whoops captured at 5:55 a.m. in Albemarle County, Virginia, on October 8, 2012. This video also demonstrates the ability of spectrograms to pinpoint quiet vocals, and for post processing to enhance vocals for better audibility.

Knocks and a Roar, June 2013

This year's audio results in my Virginia research location haven't been as productive as last year. But I have caught just enough to let me know the squatch are still in the area. They seem to be keeping their voice down as opposed to how vocal they were when I first recorded here in 2012. This clip is not the best, as the vocalizer was far from the recorder. But progressive filtering passes improved the audio so that with headphones you can better hear the initial rapid wood knocks that immediately precede a "roar" like vocal.

Two-tone vocal from Kentucky

Recently, Charlie Raymond from the Kentucky Bigfoot Research Organization shared with me a short clip of a possible sasquatch vocalization. This vocal was captured on cell phone video while he walked the forested area of his family's property. The video is unremarkable, but the audio demonstrates a "two-tone" characteristic that has been captured in other possible sasquatch vocals.

The vocal starts with a deeper, raspy note that quickly breaks upward in pitch to a tightly focused vocal tone. Over the years I've heard similar vocals in the recordings made by Rick Noffke in Minnesota, and my own recordings from south Georgia.

Here's the most recent clip from Kentucky: The Summer Shade Howl