field notes



















5 comments:

  1. There seems to be a statement about the herd decreasing in size. Have you had unexplained losses to your cattle?

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    1. Hello youhoo! I should have explained that. The site's owner leases part of the property to a cattle farmer. They took a portion of the herd over a 3 day period, leaving the cows upset and vocal.
      Thanks for reading!

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  2. hi sara and jon. congrads on baby and best wishes with health n happiness. please keep updates coming. you guys have presented great raw eviidence and im thrilled to see what else will be coming in the future... have you gotten any more visuals (flir, photos, footprints, etc) since the first flir footage? also did the sas react to all the "commotion" and attention being spent at the area where the big guy was? i mean, they are intelligent and im sure they must be somewhat suspicious to all the activity at the spot...
    do you think this "clan" lives there year round or just passes through in a yearly cycle? i just saw a great interview on the "siege at honobia(sp?)" and they portrayed the sas as a mix between some being more ape-like and some being more human-like, but that they were almost "monsters" in thier demeanor and behavoir... i almost got the impression they might be oppurtunistic cannabals, as presented by that clip... whats your take on what sas is? do you believe there are different "kinds" of sas?

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    1. hello again Tom! :)
      Our first thermal picture was actually a month before the big guy on the ridge. Before we got the FLIR, Derek Randles let us use an old school thermal imager...no recording capabilities AND no picture capabilities. Long story short, I took a picture with my phone of a 6'6" creature through the viewfinder. It's a blob...but completely amazing at the same time. The entire thing was on audio. This creature also let us know that "she" was there by knocking. She swayed gently while slightly moving to her right until she finally parked behind a blackberry bush. She watched us for the longest time...we watched her for a few minutes. I need to get that whole story put on here as well.
      As for them reacting to the commotion around the site...it doesn't seem to deter them. The night of the first thermal creature, Derek Randles and David Ellis had been over earlier in the day. Some of our best audio nights have been days that we had visitors. Tom Baker of The Olympic Project was over a few months ago and we had a 5 minute knocking session with a big guy, just a few weeks ago, Kirk Brandenburg (shot the New Mexico thermal footage) was over and we had a whistling/clicking/knocking session with more than one creature...both instances took place during the day. One thing that we don't do, and probably our most important method, we DON'T cross our line after dark. They don't cross theirs during the day, we have chosen to offer the same respect. I think that if we were invasive during their most active hours, we would have no trust. I am sure that they are very aware that we are aware of them. We ALWAYS click rocks and/or whistle when going into their territory during the day, just to notify them. There's been 5 times that I can think of where they have notified us by tapping, knocking or clicking.

      I wish that I could say how many live here. I suspect that there is an alpha male, a female and a juvenile. I also THINK that there's some rowdy teenagers that come around sometimes. The reasons that I think this is we don't hear the chaos coming from the typical area where we get most of the activity, it's on the opposite side of the site. Also, the noise isn't as typical, we will hear crazy howls/whoops/vocals during the day...like they're cocky and don't care who hears them. It's kinda funny..yet, I imagine these are the "type" who think it's fun to scare the heck out of ya. One of the neighbors said that there were juveniles throwing pebbles at his house last year...reminds me of my sophomore year in high school when my friend and I made a snow fort and decided to peg my neighbor's house with snowballs. We would hide behind the fort every time he would come outside.

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    2. Hello cuz, Ashley from Indiana here. Just stumbled upon your blog spot...and boy am I glad I did!! I could read about this stuff all day. I agree with you, in that I had no real opinion about "big guys" until I encountered something unexplainable when I was a kid living in northern Michigan. I love reading your stories...and was rivited waiting to find out what happened with the rocks Jon left on the post lol. Keep me updated....you have caught me attention <3 congrats on the littles as well doll!! They are beautiful!!

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