Like many others that do audio recording in the field, I have developed a growing collection of unknown mystery sounds. I try with all my resources available, to identify the sound or call, so it can be filed away in the known sounds category...and used for future reference, should it show up again on mine, or any other researchers recording.
In September of 2008, myself and two old friends, camped out on state forest lands in Steuben Co., NY, near the Canisteo River valley. We found a spot used by fisherman, next to a large pond. I parked the vehicle, and we unloaded, gathered our gear, and trail blazed around the pond to find a very nice secluded spot in the woods, that was still within view and easy walk to the pond. We lazed by the pond, ate a lot, and I made some audio recordings (soundscapes) of the insects, frogs and bird life around the pond. Here is one of those recordings:
http://soundcloud.com/imonacan/cameronsf-087
The night sky was very dark, and the late summer Milky Way was easy to reveal. The best sky I have seen all year ! As an added treat, the ISS (International space station) came into view and moved almost right overhead before disappearing in front of us low on the horizon ...super luck and unexpected !
In the overnight, while the last two of us awake were preparing to get into our tents and turn in, we heard a lower pitched moaning call, that came from the opposite side of the pond. I scrambled to try to record it...but the call ended before I got the recorder started. Another example of a missed opportunity...because I didn't have a recorder on...All of the time. Several hours later, I woke up and heard the same moaning call again. This time, I got the last part (4 separate moans) of the vocalizations recorded. The recorded clip starts out immediately during one of these moans (each, lasting just over a second, in length), and then the others are heard, with the space in between the sounds...relatively, the same. Also, there is a higher pitched type of squeak, in between the 1st and 2nd moans. Unfortunately, my camping buddy (the infamous Floodman) let go with a smokers cough, during the 2nd moan....so be ready for that, if you decide to listen. Here is the clip:
http://soundcloud.com/imonacan/mystery-sounds-bud-cough
Ok, here is what we knew was around us, that night..... Barred Owl, GH Owl, WT Deer, and a family of Beaver, on the pond. No people, other than us...were there. I have not matched up these sounds with any of those (or any known) critters...although, I could be missing something, and that's why other opinions are always welcome and encouraged. Barred Owl has been on my mind...but I can say that I've never heard one produce that kind of sound, before.
One of my fellow NESRA investigators, provided me with the following clip (the moaning call of a Bull Moose)...that was interesting, and matched up... the closet, to anything that I've been able to find, yet. Here is that clip for comparison:
http://www.rnltruckrepairs.com/ihuntbc/sounds/moose1.wav
Was my recorded clip, a more distant moose call ? The characteristics of the sounds are similar, but I'm not yet 100% convinced. When I ask some associates I know, that are lifetime residents of the Finger Lakes and southerntier region of western NY.....about their opinion.... if it is possible that moose could now inhabit that region...they just laugh. But they also laugh when I talk to them about sasquatch roaming the forests in NY (or elsewhere)...so, who knows? I think it's possible that this could be a moose call. Moose have wandered and breed much further south than the Adirondack Park, in NY...and also east and south into the New England states. There is no current data to support that they are present , however.... in western NY. I think it is also possible that these sounds could have been distorted over the warmer pond air currents...making it all the more tricky for ID, and possibly a distorted one note call variation of a Barred Owl. Maybe, this is something else, that I have no idea, or reference too...yet.
Opinions on these short moaning calls , are welcome...and that's the reason I'm blogging it. I probably won't stop asking for opinions, until I find out what made these sounds.
No comments:
Post a Comment