Audio Research 101

This is just to help those... that are willing to listen , and really want to be able to separate known sounds, from those that could be classed as unknown. The thing that really helped me, was to put out a long term (overnight is fine) recorder in an area of interest, and listen to All of the audio.. and not just review the WAV or spectral peaks in the files. Although there is no way to really put a positive source to the unknown sounds and vocals.. you can learn a hell of a lot about known sounds and vocals. It has been a very educational tool for me, and has greatly helped me in separating what should be there, and what might even be more interesting. The internet is a wonderful resource, for comparing recorded sounds against known bird, animal, and insect sounds. It can also be used to hook up with other recordists, and compare and share your unknowns. I am stymied by the number of sasquatch enthusiasts, and (so called) researchers.. that don't know a Barred Owl call, from an unknown vocal. This owl is by far, the biggest fooler.. and will openly admit, it fooled me in my early years of this interest, on several occasions. Coyotes, and other woodland canines, can also make some surprising sounds. Still, I have heard vocals within coyote activity.. that seem to chime in, but don't sound canine. Whether they are, or not.. is still to be determined. A big (if nearly impossible) challenge.. but that is what makes the hobby, so interesting. I made sure to educate myself, all I could .. by getting a CD of all owl calls and variations of them, in the eastern US.. as well as vocals of known mammals, amphibians, and insects. In addition, the long term recording has shown me even more variations of known wildlife and woodland sounds, not found on any CD. In the future, I will have to do that all over again, in the Philippines... where known sounds and vocal recordings, are not readily available. How am I going to figure all that out ? I'm going to try and find a way, and it should keep me interested for the remainder of my days (and nights). Separating the known , from the unknown.. is a continual challenge, and something needed to be updated, and kept current. This should be the first step, one should take.. before trying to figure out what is making the unknown sounds and vocals.. which is plenty hard enough, without confusing them with the known ones.