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dlaw
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| Joined: | Sun Jun 22nd, 2008 |
| Location: | Middle Tennessee |
| Posts: | 113 |
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Posted: Tue Sep 16th, 2008 04:34 am |
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I do not represent this as an encounter. It may or may not have been. I would like the opinions of those more experienced than me.
This happened on August 30, 2008, in Grundy County, Tennessee. My brother and I own some land there on top of a mountain, and his family and my family have camped there on Labor Day weekend for several years. Much of the land has been clear-cut and replanted in pines by a timber company, but thee are still several hundred acres of hardwoods. This year I decided to do a little research while camping. I found the attached formations on Saturday evening, and decided to go hunting BF on Sat. nite.
A little after 10:00 pm, my brother, my son-in-law, a cousin, a friend, and I went out on 4 wheelers. They were laughing and making fun of me. My friend is a left leg amputee, but is very familiar with the woods. We traveled down a dirt road and stopped about a mile from camp, near where we had pulled a Suzuki Samauri from a mudhole earlier that evening. The road runs roughly east-west and we parked in the road facing west, and we stopped on top of a ridge , with a large depesssion or "sink" to our right front.
I was the only one who believed in BF, and not knowing much about them, except what I read, I really did not (and still don't) know what I was doing. I had cut a 2 1/2 inch by about 5 foot "knocking stick" earlier, and after we stopped, I knocked 3 times on about a 15" diameter tree on the north side of the road, then listened.
I had a couple of "hunters ears" inserted in my ears that amplify sound. I also had a cheap IR night vision monocular, a flashlight, and a mp3 player. All of us had handguns.
After I did the knocking, I made everyone turn off all lights. Boy, was it dark- the proverbial kind of darkness where you can't see your hand in front of your face. I thought I heard two very distant knocks in response, and a dog or coyote yelping. It must have been a coyote, as there were no dogs anywhere around. And I may have been mistaken about the return knocks.
Anyway, in just a few minutes, owls starting hooting and screaming. They sounded like they were coming from 1 o'clock, and eventually from 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 8 o'clock and 10 o'clock. I kept thinking they were coming from 1 o'clock, but my friend insisted they were coming from 4 o'clock. It sounded like 3 or 4 different kinds of owls, and they sounded like they were low to the ground, not up in trees. Also, they kept moving, but we did not hear any flapping of wings like they usually make. And they did not sound exactly like the owls I was used to hearing, and they were extremely loud.
I heard something moving through the woods to the north (right), just off the hill. I decided to try to find what it was, and went off with my night vision scope. Eventually, my brother followed, with a flashlight. We did not find anything, but my friend said he thought that my brother or I had tried to imitate an owl, as he heard an owl imitation coming from the area of the woods we were in. I did not hear it, but probably would not have, due to the noise my brother and I made walking through the leaves.
I came back to the road. I had a small speaker for the mp3 player, and the only recording I had was the T-rex scream, which I played. That seemed to irritate the owls, who really were agitated. By this time, I had taken out the ear amplifiers, thinking they had caused me to maybe get the direction the sounds were coming from wrong, at least according to my friend.
My cousin and son-in-law heard a sound from somewhere to the south of the road that they described as a "chugging" sound like you would make if drinking a glass of milk and gulping for air. This was followed by a low growl. I did not hear either of these as I was on the north side of the road, and still listening to the owls.
All told we were there a little over an hour. When I suggested we go back to camp. Everyone was in complete agreement.
Back at camp, no one was laughing, as they were before we left. I found out that my friend, who was carrying a Taurus Judge(can shoot 2 1/2" .410's or .45 long Colts) had replaced the .410's with .45's while we were out. Also found out that he and my cousin had actually pulled their revolvers and had cocked them. I warned everyone that the worst thing you could do was probably shoot at something.
Back at camp, while sitting at the campfire, my cousin head a noise. I walked away from the campfire with him, and I heard 2 "whoops" from the direction we had come from. I asked him if that was the sound he was hearing, and he said yes.
Don't know if we had an encounter, but the next morning, my cousin woke me knocking on trees, and my friend would leave camp periodically and drive out in the woods, observing.
I showed them the formations, and they agreed that they did not seem to be naturally made.
I sat around the campfire most of the night. Heard owls most of night, and also movement under the bluff near our camp.
I may not be successful in posting the photos, but will try. There was a daytime sighting about 4-5 miles from here a few years ago. Any opinions?
Dave
http://picasaweb.google.com/dlaw1950/BIGFOOTRESEARCH?authkey=rN_WsTkZQ6E#
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Squatchin'- it's not a passion--it's an obsession
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dwells
Member
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Posted: Tue Sep 16th, 2008 07:12 am |
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Well dlaw am no expert myself. LOL But it sounds like you may have made contact. I read lots of reports of them trying to sound like owls and yotes. Sounds like you found a good spot to find the Big Guys. 
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THEIR OUT THERE !
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Catamount
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Posted: Tue Sep 16th, 2008 03:18 pm |
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dlaw, Sounds like you might have gotten into some boogers. Also, the formations in pics #1, 3, 4 & 8 look, to me, like they are definitely not natural. Have you ever explored beyond the formation in pic #8, in the direction the camera is pointing? This is what we refer to as an "X" formation and is, I believe, a combination territorial marker and "Keep Out" sign. How far is this formation from where you had the encounter at night?
The reaction that you described of the owls approaching from several directions at once is one that I have experienced. Here is a link to an incident where the same type of thing happened to me: http://www.gcbro.com/MSprent001.html
The gutteral "chugging" sound that you described is similar to one that I have heard and I have heard described by others. And the fact that it was followed by a growl, leads me to believe that it was done by a booger that was giving you a warning that it was not especially pleased with your presence in it's territory.
And you are correct, in that situation, use of a firearm would be the very LAST thing that anyone should do. The best protection was your flashlights, camera flashes or spotlights. I always take a rechargable spotlight of at least 1 million candlepower with me into unfamiliar areas.
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"There's things in these woods that only God-Almighty Himself knows what they are." - O'neal Sockwell's explanation to me, as to why I needed to carry a gun when I went in the woods on the back of our farm.
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dlaw
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| Joined: | Sun Jun 22nd, 2008 |
| Location: | Middle Tennessee |
| Posts: | 113 |
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Posted: Tue Sep 16th, 2008 04:24 pm |
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Tim, thanks for your input. I value and respect your opinions. Photo # 8 was about 1/2 mile from incident. The tree twist in 6 & 7 was about 25 yds from the formation in photos 1-5. There was another tree twist about 3" diameter about 80-90 yds from tree twist in photo. Several smaller trees, 3-6" diameter were bowed, but could have been due to lack of sunlight since large trees surrounding them.
Photos 1-7 were on one low ridge, and the rest were one or two ridges away(I can't recall which, now). I only did a minimal amount of looking for sign, but a lot of things I found and did not photgraph did not look "natural".
The owls sounded like 3-5 different types of owls, not owls doing 3-5 different calls.
If we did have an encounter, we were pretty lucky as this is the first time I have ever been out, and did not know what I was doing. If there are boogers there, I suspect that they haven't been messed with.
It seems that whatever we encountered was right in the area from the beginning.
I felt scared, but not threatened, if that makes any sense, and never considered pulling revolver at any time.
The other 4 people with me may not be believers now, but they sure aren't skeptical any more. LOL
Thanks again for your input. Maybe I need your recently-converted brother to come up on his tractor and flush them out. LOL
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Squatchin'- it's not a passion--it's an obsession
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