First of all I am not claiming that this is b/f related. It's not a joke, so I'm not out to yank anybodys chain. I would just like to know what the hell it was. We did not see what made the sounds, we were trying to capture a different sound and would just set up the recorder and let it tape. The location was north central Fl. November of 2000. The recorder would be set at 11pm to roughly 4am. The recorder was a ge sound activated mini cassette with a mike. The mike was set up in a back window facing the tree line with the window open just enough not to crush the mike. We had been having questionable things happen, and that is why under my avatar my encounter is listed as "unsure". The sound is not what you normally would relate to b/f. Not a howl, scream, or gibberish. The sounds consist of rythmic clicks that are heard for several minutes, roughly 15 minutes into the recording. The clicks sound far away and then seem to sound closer/louder, the dog did react to those sounds. There are also what "appears" to be twig or limb snaps that the dog reacted to also, and 2 or 3 episodes of knocking sounds which consist of 4 to 5 knocks each. At one point towards the end of the taping there is a loud sound, do not know if it was the dog, but after that the dog remained quiet. (The dog was not hurt) The oddest part is what is on the wave file, when the clicks go into a click clacking sound. The dog at that time would of had a clear view of whatever it was but never made a sound. On the wave file, the second episode of clicks ends in a clack. You can also hear what I can only assume that whatever it was, was messing with a large plastic bin that we had kept a baby goat in previously, but had it filled with stuff to take to the dump. I did not make the wave file. The wave file was made by someone else, off of a copy of the original recording. There is only one sound that appears to be background noise that probably happened while I was recording the copy, a squeaking sound that is not on the original tape. I have found only a handful of reports that mention the clicking sounds that "may" be related to encounters, but no sounds available to compare to. The only thing even remotely similar are a few seconds of clicks on the sierra sounds. If anyone can ID as to what it is, can you please direct me to where I can hear something similar. <<<The file is too large to load so I need assistance. If I need to re-send it again via e-mail, please pm me.>>> If it can't be downloaded onto the site, I will send the wave file out via e-mails to anyone that is interested.

Speaking of which, paint, I never got an email! How big is the file?

Paint sent me the file last night. Very strange indeed. Kind of turkey like but not really. It's 1132kb. I can send it to you too but I don't think I can send attachments through the email here on the board.

For those of you who can listen to MP3's here is the entire file in MP3 format.

Bipto, I just resent the file via e-mail.

It mostly resembles a night bird of some sort ... and also skunks squawkin

Peregrine might answer the ID for you.

Parts sound similar to this


Black-crowned Night Heron

But I'm just guessin

Google - Florida Night Birds
Findsounds.com find a match

I would suspect some sort of Rail....I know Rails can make some pretty weird sounds...

http://www.junglewalk.com/popup.asp?type=a...malAudioID=5231

There are Clapper rails that do sound like clicking...that is a link to one above also Sora Rails sound really weird....any of the Gallinules can sound pretty weird.

FYI, I tried posting the WAV last night with no sucess. I'll get in on the board today, though.

Thanks for the info. Benthere, I had previously ruled out the black crowned heron but pulled up more different wave files on sounds of that bird just to be sure, and nada. Sosha, I LOVE THAT SITE, but nada also. BUT, I e-mailed the webmaster the wave file along with all the info, state, county, date and time the recording was done. So hopefully I'll hear something back. Will post if I get any response. A couple months ago I e-mailed my brother in law the wave file, he belongs to a birding club down in south Florida and he travels on birding field trips and he was stumped also.

:bump:

Well....did he? Did you? Did it?

Painthorse... i made it to the tread, but where if the sound file? I didn't see it in your post? Where is the link for it? Do you need to e-mail it to me? Sorry, i looked but can't seem to see it.....

Scroll down to Moregons post, he was kind enough to transfer it to a MP3 file.

File



http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?act...=post&id=147327

Thanks J

Thanks guys... the clicks i heard sounded similar, the ones i heard were more solid sounding, does that make any sense? A little lower pitched.

I don't think that means it isn't an identical sound.

The quality of the sounds on this mp3 will have been reduced several times. First, it was done on a cassette recorder with one of the mics made for it, I imagine. These mics aren't all that good and don't capture the full range of sound. The original sound may have contained some information below 100Hz that wouldn't show up on this recording.

Second thing is transfering from analog to digital, and then from wav to mp3 reduces the quality again.

Then there is a lot of noise on the tape that may clutter the lower frequencies it did capture.

So in short I think you ought to not try to compare the perceived frequencies of this and your own encounter, but see if the other information preserved can fit -- the timing, character of the sound, etc.

The lighter sounding clicks sound like something mechanical, but they aren't periodic in their overall occurance.

dbdonlon, after hearing the playback of the recording for the first couple times we thought that the lighter rythmic clicks were actually the recorder itself picking up its own internal sounds. Even though the external mike was at least two foot away from the recorder itself. If it makes any sense, the sound was dopplar, the recorder was stationary but the sound wasn't. I haven't listened to the entire recording in awhile but if I remember correctly there's roughly 15 to 20 minutes where that rythmic click sound is intermittant throughout that time frame. The dog also reacted to the sounds. The same recorder and tape was also used to record to the end of the cassette during another taping but the sound is never duplicated again on the remainder of the tape. Also the second set of clicks on the file end with a clack sound. One of the issues I have been trying to figure out is if whatever was making the clicks was the same thing making the clack sounds. To your knowledge, is there any type of sound test that can verify if the two sounds are related? Whether mechanical or organic.

I think that's probably not possible yet. You'd have to have a real good recording, and then a library of sounds that a computer program would try to compare it to. We can tell the frequency at which these noises occurred. I ran them through SoundRuler and it looks like the dominant frequency is about 1.5KHz.

There is also a lot of noise at the bottom end of that tape. I'd like to know if that is throughout, or only occurred while the other noises were going on. In other words, is it noise, or is it something that was there.

Here's a graph of one of the "click clack" sounds..

And here's a graph of the click:

Those graphs don't tell us much. The sounds are pretty similar.

dbdonlon, I'll have to listen to the recording again. I'm not sure, but I think the noise on that part of the recording was a plane flying overhead. There was definate train and air traffic through out the recording.

Also, thanks for taking the time to do the graphs. I realize that the graphs can't tell much, but I'm trying to understand if what you say that "the sounds are pretty similar" and looking at the graphs, that there "may be" a chance that "whatever" made the rythmic clicks, may be the same thing that made the click clack sounds. "I understand that there is no way that can actually be a positive comparison with the graphs", but if I understand correctly, it is a possibility.

Well I did a cross correlation analysis (a feature of the SoundRuler program, not something I know a lot about..) and it seems to show that the sounds are indeed pretty similar, when comparing their power graph. Just eyeballing it shows they are pretty much the same, with the exception of less amplitude at the lower frequencies for the clicks vs. the click clacks.

So, they could be the same thing, one being maybe further away?

I take it you didn't hear these sounds with your own ears at the time?

Unforetunately no. We had been recording nightly, setting the recorder to try to capture a different sound.We had lived in that area since 94 and on that specific property from 99 until we just recently sold it the end of March. We ourselves had never heard that sound, or anything even remotely similar. This sound was recorded during Nov. 2000. One person that I played the tape for who was at our property back in Oct 2000 when other sounds were heard, said he heard something similar that night. We did not. We had tenants living there also from 8/03 to 2/04. They had said that a clicking sound was heard coming from the woods. Problem is we weren't there and there is no way of knowing if what they heard was similar to what is on the tape. We did not offer to play the tape to them, they were allready spooked and broke the lease early.

Very interesting stories! Is there any reason to suppose it has something to do with BF? A history of sightings in the area?

You said it sounded similar to some clicks on the Sierra Sounds CD. What were those described as, if you know?

Only assumptions. Nothing concrete. The sounds and events did not match up to local wildlife. Yes, Marion county has it's fair share of reports. Especially the Ocala National Forest that was just roughly 14 miles east of my property. The most recent was a class A sighting after the hurricanes came through last year, older reports from the Alexander Springs area, Moon Lake, Paisly, and Belleview. My property was staked out on more than one occasion in 2000, but the results were uneventful.

Then it's definitely something I'd hang onto. At this point I don't know how it fits in with BF, but if it does, there will be other recordings/reports -- either those in the past we simply haven't heard of yet, or something coming up. Put it by somewhere safe and keep an ear to the ground. I will too.

:smily953: BUMP

Lots of new people onboard, hopefully someone has heard something similar or can ID this sound.

hey Paint,
I knew those sounds did sound familiar but not like the clicks I was trying to explain. I think for your clip you have you might want to look into the various calls of the north american carpenter frog and the Florida Bog Frog. they both make sounds similar to that. Depending on the time of the year the clicks and croaks could be slower making them not sound exactly like a frog. Do you live near a swamp or marsh? if so it is very possible that it is the bog frog. Here is a website with the calls on it. Let me know what you think.

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site.../frogCalls.html

Those loud grating sounds seem very "rail"-y to me. They're certainly not the typical calls of King Rail or Clapper Rail, but those birds can make all manner of extremely loud and unusual sounding calls that don't appear on the commerically available bird call collections. Also possible in Florida are the calls of two species of rails that don't have "rail" in their names: Purple Gallinule and Common Moorhen. These are relatives of coots, and all are known for giving some wild and wacky calls. The Limpkin is also a very noisy alternative. Central Florida also has resident Sandhill Cranes.

Mind you, the calls I heard on the file are not calls with which I am specifically familiar. They just strike me as having a very similar quality to certain calls of King and/or Clapper rails. Your best bet? Contact the MacCauley Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/.

~Saskeptic


ps: please keep us posted!

Thanks for the link btuck, that is one of the original sites I used when doing elimination.
I still am going to go back and see if I can find multiple sounds in reference to the carpenter. The carpenter has a better rythm than the bog and the bog's territory is way outside of the geographic range of where this recording took place. Also the property that I lived on was high and dry, no ponds within a few miles except for a water drainage collection area at the middle school that is usually dry through the fall and winter months.

Sask, thanks for the cornell link!!!

I know when I was doing my searches, I did listen to the calls of rails, but can't remember if I checked out the Gallinule and moorhen, so that is something also I need to do. I also did searches for native and migratory birds, along with nocturnal, native and migratory, being that the recording was done between 11pm and 4-4:30 am.

I have dealt with Cornell in the past, and it was not a good experience.

The best place to find questions on birds, is www.birdforum.net.

If you think this forum is large, check out the member list there. "Most members online" ever there is more than the total membership here!

I posted a query at the Yahoo Group - naturerecordists. They have a membership of 1083, many of whom are expert at frogs and birds.

They have been most helpful helping me identify many bird songs and calls. Perhaps we will receive some type of a response there.

Stan

Thank you :new_specool:

I have heard this same sound before with my hunters ears. Two of us had the ears on at the time one night and both of us heard it. After I talked to a long time researcher about it he told me what he thought it was and I think he was correct and I will explain why.
I thought the sound was from something mechanical because of the timing and changing of the sound.
At times it almost sounded like an old clock running or something. You will laugh when you hear this but here goes.

First off..I take it that your sound recording equipment amps up the sounds out there pretty well. Just like hunters game ears do.
On the morning after we heard this..we returned to this area to see if we could figure out what we had heard. We looked all over the place for tracks. The only tracks we saw were turkey tracks. As we got close to the spot where we had heard this sound, a turkey flew out of a tree that was almost directly over head from the spot we heard the sound. At the time I thought nothing about it.

What the long time researcher told me after I told him about the sound was this. It might have been a turkey..they can make some strange noises in their sleep. They will flex their wing feathers together and it make a rasping or clicking sound and they also make some strange sounds by a faint clucking and other mouth sounds.
You would never hear the sounds with just your ears, but with the sounds amplified by the game ears or your recorder you would hear them..especially if you were right under it as it is roosting in a tree a few feet over your heard.

As strange as it sounds..I believe you recorded a roosting ..dreaming..turkey.

Mike (watch1)




Are there turkeys in the area the recording was made?

Here is a site with sounds of the wild turkey.

LINK



Mike (watch1)

Mike, yes, there were definately turkeys in that area. You gave me an idea too. Funny, I had at one time referred to the recording as the "demonic turkey from hell, lol.
I have a friend that currently has 4 turkeys in a pen, I also had turkeys but had never heard them make that type of noise, but what you said about the amplification is worth trying out by having my friend leave my recorder set over night by his coop, using the same type of mic, recorder and cassette that was used when we captured the sounds on the wave file and then reviewing it afterwards, it's definately worth a try.
Puzzling thing though, in reference to roosting, the recorder was stationary set in my window with the mic sticking out, the rythmic clicking can be heard intermittently throughout the recording after the first 13 to 14 minutes into the tape. When first reviewing the tape we actually thought we were "picking up" the interior mechanical workings of the recorder but after listenning to it several times we realised that the rythmic clicking was dopplar and that whatever it was, was moving and at times driving my dog insane as it neared the dog. The curious thing is that when whatever it was, was at it's nearest, loudest part of the recording which is what the wave file originated from, it would have been in full view of the dog, approximately 30 to 40 feet and he was silent the last couple minutes of the recording.

Edited to add : Mike, thanks for posting the links, it took forever to download each call, dial up stinks, lol. I had listened to similar turkey calls previously while doing eliminations including guinea hen sound files and nada, but there's still a chance that when I tape my friends turkeys overnight while roosting in their coop, that the amplification from the recorder may solve my mystery if I can get something similar.

It will be interesting to hear the results from the turkey pen test.

I just don't know what to think about the dogs reaction to this sound ..unless it was faint and the dog could not figure out where it was coming from and as it got louder it could hear it better and then new what it was.

I am just guessing here because I sure don't know.

Anyone else got any ideas?

Mike (watch1)

[quote name='watch1' date='Sep 17 2006, 11:36 PM' post='341616']I am just guessing here because I sure don't know.

Don't feel like the lone ranger, that makes two of us. :laugh: