This is our first year to spend the colder winter months away from the Midwest. Our criteria was to both be out of the snow and to have interesting places to visit. So our first pick was South Texas and specifically the Lower Rio Grande, known to folks in these parts as the LRG. Every year 144,000 retirees, known as Winter Texans, take up residence in this part of the state. Being an avid birder I was very interested in checking out the dozens of great birding parks and nature preserves.

The Rio Grande River forms a long band of green for 1254 miles along the Mexico – United States border.

But what about squatches? Looking at several databases available on-line I was unable to find any activity in the lower 25 counties of Texas. Was this an indication of an absence of squatches or just an absence of sightings or witnesses reporting such?

We arrived on the 3rd of January and on the 6th of January I had my first unusual occurrence. I was walking alone on a paved road that meanders through one of the local parks. It was 8 a.m. and I was absorbed in listening to the dozens of unusual bird calls and songs that make this valley so unique and  special to many birders. I started to get that “watched feeling”. It was not intense but was strong enough that I turned around and looked behind me, nothing. It  could have been a collared peccary, a bobcat or even a coyote watching me. I walked about another 30 seconds when a small rock came sailing in and hit close to my feet. At the same time I heard the brush start breaking about 80 feet inside the tree line.  Those three thing happening at the same time made me stop wondering if it were just my imagination. I  know what I would have thought if I were back home in Central Illinois.

The small road where the rock throwing took place.

I slowly made my way from the park and returned the next day with my remote recording equipment. It was my intention to continuously record and see if any sounds of interest would be picked up.

I recorded for several weeks, picked up my equipment and slowly made my way through the sound files.

The small trail leading to where I dropped off my long-term continuous recorder.

On the 22nd of Jan 2011 I picked up the following sounds.

22 Jan 2011 – Possible wood knocks.

And then the next day, the 23rd  of Jan 2011 I picked up an unusual vocalization.

22 Jan 2011 – Possible vocalization.

Both the wood knocks and the vocalization were recorded at around 2 a.m. As always with any possible sasquatch sounds consideration must be given to human activity in the area and past known sasquatch activity, if any.