My grandson is two and half years old. And as such, like most toddlers, is challenged when it comes to language skills. He has pet names for people and things. He differentiates between two sets of grandparents by the names of our dogs. Hence my name is “Papa Belle”, and his other grandfather is “Papa Tess”. His great-grandfather does not have a dog but he does have chickens. Therefore his name is “Papa click click”, my grandson imitating the sound the chickens make.

Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates a sound. Such common words in English are “meow” or “roar”.  This usage is common through many different cultures, although the word they use will not be the same as ours.

In March and April of this year (2012) I left a long-term continuously running recorder out in the woods at a witnesses property in Edgar County, Illinois near the Illinois-Indiana border. The recorder was positioned 12 feet off the ground in an open-platform tree blind.  The witnesses farm is in a remote area, there are scattered farms but very few people.  The witness had removed all gamecams from his property six months earlier.

A typical deer tree stand somewhat similar to the one in Edgar County, Illinois

On the 2nd of April, 2012, I recorded the most unusual sound. Immediately upon hearing it I thought “camera shutter”.  Others will think something else. I spoke with the witness, who was adamant that no strangers ever trespass and cut through his woods or pastures.  And once again he maintained that there were no gamecams on his property.

The sound was close, at least within 10 feet from the recorder.

I can not tell you what made that sound, but I am left with this thought –

Was this one of the “locals” passing close by the tree stand? Did they use an onomatopoeiac word to describe what they mistook for a gamecam, my recorder sitting in the tree stand.”   Was the “clicking and motor sound” heard on the sound clip their vocal term for a gamecam?

Click here to listen to this sound clip:  Tree Stand Sound

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And here is a sound clip of an older 35 mm film  camera : 35 mm Camera Shutter

Every year I return at least twice to the area where the Colorado Howl recordings were obtained the summer of 2009.  The site is on a remote dead-end road, being 25 miles from the nearest pavement. I have spent many days there all alone enjoying the quietude.

I arrived on Saturday, the 21st of July 2012. Dennis and Shannon Pfohl,  of The Colorado Bigfoot Research Group pulled into camp on Monday morning and Marc Swanson arrived on the next Thursday evening and spent the weekend with the group.

This place is a little bit different than I have ever been before. Vocals can be heard anytime during the day or night and as a result we try to lay low in the morning and not move around much before 08:30 a.m.

On Monday afternoon at 2:30 p.m., I heard coming from the south-east at about 200 yards in the wood-line, a massive single wood knock. It sounded like a major leaguer hitting a home run ball out of the ballpark. This was not a trip that we would hear any loud vocals.

Tuesday morning at 5:00 a.m. Shannon heard what she described as someone yelling “heh” directly south of us. She thought  at the time it was only me out early in the morning. It was not.

[Photo by Marc Swanson]

Left to right – Stan Courtney – Marc Swanson – Shannon and Dennis Pfohl

Wednesday morning around 1:00 a.m. we had a massive thunderstorm and high winds. I was sleeping in the back of my pickup under the truck-topper. As the rain stopped I felt as if the truck was shoved very hard by something at the front . Twenty seconds later the truck was shoved strongly a second time. I couldn’t see or hear anything.

Around 5:00 a.m. Shannon heard a very large single wood knock coming from due south. At 9:35 a.m. I was sitting in a lawn chair by the meadow and heard another large wood knock coming 200 yards due west.

In the evening after dark, maybe 9:30 p.m., Shannon and Dennis, using a thermal imager, watched a cow elk in the meadow, seemingly upset about something (maybe our presence).

Click here to listen to this sound clip of the elk:  Elk in the meadow.

Thursday morning at 8 a.m. Shannon and Dennis both felt and heard their 26 ft. trailer being smacked by something near the corner. There first response was wondering if I had snuck over and was teasing them.  I was not up and about at the time.

It was a little unsettling to all of us to think that perhaps something had been in our camp during the daytime.

At 4:30 p.m. we did hear one distant howl as a response to one of our calls.

[Photo by Marc Swanson]

Friday evening we heard our first close-in coyotes vocalizing in a stand of trees about 200 yards SW of the camp. We were all hoping that the Colorado Howler would join the chorus, but it was not to be.

Click here to listen to this sound clip of the coyotes:  Coyotes near the meadow.

Saturday morning, between 8:15 and 8:30 a.m. Marc, who was sleeping in his tent, was awakened by a very large  rock that was dropped or thrown and landed several feet from his tent.

Saturday afternoon we walked about 75 yards into the woods behind our camp to collect firewood. Marc and I then returned to camp. Twenty minutes later Shannon and Dennis came back to camp. Dennis related that while walking a little further into the woods he was alarmed to see a black “ball of fur” headed straight towards him.

It turned out to be Belle, my Karelian Bear Dog. She normally scouts out the area and spends lots of time in the woods. She is “on her own” most of time and as with other members of her breed are known as being quite fearless.  The previous week she had a short altercation with a Hereford range bull, it was a stand-off.

As Belle came back towards Dennis she immediately hid behind his legs and peered back down the trail from where she had come. It remains unknown what she had encountered that would affect her in this manner.

We broke camp on Sunday morning and returned to our homes. Although we did not hear and record any loud vocalizations we did feel like we had heard very loud wood knocks and had perhaps had camp visitors on three occasions.

The following are some of the sounds heard from base camp: The Meadows 2012.

If there is one Achilles heal when dealing with sasquatch research it is behavior.  Sasquatch, as do all species of animals, tend to display the same set of behaviors within their specific groups.

One behavior that has been reported is the sasquatch affinity for domestic chicken.

Several years ago I was asked by a fellow researcher to accompany him to a rural home where the family had been experiencing loud vocals. They had also found possible stick structures and large footprints. The homeowner had lost several dozen chickens and ducks.  As it was getting dark when we arrived I found it interesting to see the only two chickens left were perched on the porch railing as close to the door as possible.   The homeowners eventually sold their home and moved.

In November of 2010 I gave a public presentation in Belleville, Illinois. After the talk I was approached by a woman from rural Red Bud, Illinois who had been losing five or six chickens several times a week. The chicken house showed no signs of forced entry. The only clue was the strange “cry baby” sounds that she would hear coming from the woods behind her home.

Recently I interviewed a homeowner from near Mt. Vernon, Illinois. He had seen an 8 ft upright figure around his outbuildings and was concerned for his livestock. During the conversation I asked about chickens and he said he had given up on raising them as they always disappeared.

I am currently recording long term at a rural residence near Greenville, Illinois. The family has learn wood knocks and unusual howls. And once again she notes that the neighbors chickens are upset at night.

And recently this newspaper article was published in our local newspaper here in Central Illinois concerning ducks.

Crimes/Incidents
May 29, 2012

 At approximately 8:41., a deputy was advised by dispatch of a need to return a call to a 53-year-old woman in reference to ducks being taken from her pen. The deputy contacted the woman who said she wanted to make a report of her ducks being taken. The woman informed the deputy she had four ducks in a pen in the backyard. The woman also reported there were a dozen eggs missing as well. the complainant reported the pen was not locked but the door was shut. There was no indication another animal had gotten into the pen. The woman advised there were two male and two female ducks. The deputy advised the woman a report would be completed. No arrest were made.

In most of these cases, although a sasquatch was not seen, the witnesses had noted unusual sounds and other unusual things happening around their residences.

But why take chickens or duck? Of course no one knows the answer other than maybe for the fact the chickens are small and  easy to carry.  Plus many people today that live out in the suburbs or rural areas raise a few chickens but do not raise the larger animals.

For a previous article related to this subject please see:

Get Your Chickens In A Row