For some time now I have been aware that there is something in the woods behind my house that once in awhile makes strange sounds.
The leaves are off the trees now and the woods in the daytime are fairly transparent. Deer are easily seen on the hill behind my house. I live on a small lake at the end of a spur. Â I do have a few neighbors up the road from me but none next door.
At night everything changes dramatically. Â It is extremely dark as I do not use any security lights or leave outside lights on.
The small valley behind my home.
I am doing audio recording 24/7 with a Telinga parabolic microphone. Â The parabolic is mounted on a tripod and located on a covered patio which is covered by a roof and surrounded by three walls. Microphone cables go through a hole I created in my basement wall and then feed upstairs to my Sound Devices 722 recorder.
I live in a very quiet area. At night there is almost no vehicle traffic. The greatest problem I have getting good recordings is wind in the tops of the trees.
In the last month I recorded strange sound three different times.
I propose no explanation to the sources of the sounds only that I can verify that no one is wondering around in the woods behind my home at the late hours of the night. The rustling of leaves that is heard is my dog Belle running up closer to the house.
The 1st sound almost sounds like a low moan.
Recorded the 15th of November, 2011.
Click here to listen to sound clip:Â Â Voice 1Â
Waveform view and spectral view of Voice 1.
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The 2nd sound sort of sounds like someone laughing.
Recorded the 17th of November, 2011.
Click here to listen to sound clip:Â Â Voice 2
Waveform view and spectral view of Voice 2.
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The 3rd sound resembles voices similar to a GPS audio or a TV.
Recorded the 11th of December, 2011.
Click here to listen to sound clip:Â Â Voice 3
Waveform view and spectral view of Voice 3.
One could certainly wish to have better quality recordings but with the wind and distance it is not possible.
Voice 1 and 3 sound like owls to me.
I've had a possum laugh at me once. Believe it or not.
"Rahhhhh-rah-rah-rah rah.
Voice 2 might be one.
I'd like to know what owl would sound like Voice 3 though. I've heard mockingbirds imitate cell phones.
But, I've never heard "if you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again" in the woods.
There are several large libraries of bird and animals sounds available.
Among those are:
The Cornell Lab Of Ornithology – Macaulay Library
The Internet Bird Collection
xeno-canto
National Geographic
If anyone feels that they know of a recording from either a bird or animal that matches any of my recordings please send me a link from one of these excellent libraries.
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My feelings about the use of video and gamecams is well known.
What About Video or Gamecams?
Very cool recordings. So Belle runs to the house in all 3 of them? Afraid? Is that the only reaction from her? How far from your house do You think they are?
Belle did not run into the house with any of these recordings. I think the closest is about 150 feet.
Voice 3 is a muffled Television transmission, the voice is Female. Sounds like an advertisment. I would say the TV is inside the house and the recorder is outside, sounds as if this were a night time recording and the house window was open allowing the TV transmission to be heard in low muffled tones.
I have to agree with Ten, #3 sounded like a television. And at the very beginning, you wrote: "The rustling of leaves that is heard is my dog Belle running up closer to the house." Yet on your response to Doug Davis, you stated: "Belle did not run into the house with any of these recordings."
Yes, you are correct. Belle was out in the yard the whole time, she did run up on the patio, close to the house but did not come in through the doggie-door.
The last voice, hmmmm. sounds muffled, it sounded like the name Hayden. I heard please, and something about back down stairs? I dont know you or your wife, but do either of you laugh like that? It sounds like the same voice on two and three. But not real. You think they are mimicking one of you? Do you or a neighbor have a someone named hayden? Almost like a bird….they mimick, what bird would be out flying around repeating things? Also there is a large sounding dog in the backgroundbarking alot, like it is alarmed, since we can hear your dog shuffling around, any idea whose dog it might be? Neighbors with like a shepard? If so how far? It would be weird if it was standing at your neighbors looking in the window copying someone!
I think it is imitating my voice laughing while watching TV. We have dogs maybe 1/4 mile west of us. You can see our flat screen TV while standing just in the woods behind our back yard.
yes i have heard your laugh, and it does sound just like you laughing Stan. They are such great mimics. The “ill barker” sound clip? It is a very deep sounding bark. What is russeling the leaves during that barking sound clip. Any ideas?
Since my dog was in the house I would assume the leaves were by what ever was making the sounds.
Stan, this is the first time I’ve visited your website and it is amazing. I have a very similar situation going on at our home. We live on several wooded acres in a very rural area of Sevier county Tennessee only minutes from the Smoky Mtn National Park. I have been researching for about three years and recently moved to this home this past spring. Us like you have had countless “odd” occurances and strange sounds almost every night. We even have visits about three times a week where I can blow a barred owl call and not long after you’ll here “something” bipedal and large come up through the woods below us and walk back and forth along the tree line. I do record also multiple times every week, but it takes an extreme amount of time to review 12 hours of audio every night! Do you have any advice on how to make this process any quicker/easier? I would love to record like you 24/7, but I think I’d rather stay married, lol! Love your website, thanks!
You need to use a sound editor, where you can load the complete sound file and look for peaks. There are many great editors including a very large group of free editors. A lot of people use Audacity.
Check out this blogpost for links:
http://www.stancourtney.com/wordpress/field-recor…
good evening mr Courtney—– Jim Finn