SQUEAKY THERMAL Newsletter #1 - 8/16/2010

I thought you would like to know what I have been up to since the Spring of 2009, when I shot the thermal footage of a Squatch in the Uwharrie National Forest. In the future I will be posting my newsletters on my website.

Most of the thermal footage was originally posted on the BFRO website for all to see... for free, and had over 80,000 hits. I subsequently removed all but a few seconds of the video from that website and placed it in its entirety on mine bushloper.net where I charged an outrageous sum for a download ( less than a cup of Starbucks). While my website has been visited over 45,000 times, only some 900 visitors downloaded the video. My point being that this is NOT a huge moneymaker at all. Of all these viewers, there have been 6 who have scoffed at what they saw. Each to his own.

Anyway, since April 2009 I have been going back to the same spot and spending roughly one night a week, except for July and August, when it is just too hot. I did take off five separate weeks during the winter to sail my catamaran in stages from Norfolk, VA ,down the intercoastal waterway, across Florida via Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico and down to Marco Island.

I have added several items to my collection of hardware. The first being a small Thermal Imager originally designed to fit in the grill of high end autos. To it I added a Lithium Ion battery pack, good for 8 hours., then covered it with closed cell foam and camo material. It's 8"x6"x 2 1/2". I purchased a Sony Niteshot videocamera to use as a dependable, long running Digital Video Recorder. With its 30 gig hard rive and long battery life, it will record for over 8 hours, making it an excellent companion to the new Imager.

I also purchase a Bushnell gen1 Night Vision scope. While its night vision capabilities alone are not so hot, it does have four features which make it useful: a video OUT port, allowing one to record from it, a feature not often found on NV, a battery IN port to allow extended usage, a very powerful 850nm IR Illuminator, and it has 5 power magnification.More on this later.

Additonally I purchased a small TV camera with 950nm LED illuminators built in, and used it regularly for a year in addition to recording with the Thermal Imager. The point was to capture the same footage with two sources, one TV with IR illumination, and the other Thermal. Bear with me here.... as its going to get a bit technical. People in this field have repeatedly reported that when they turned on the 850 nm IR Illuminators on their NV scopes/glasses/whatever, or Sony Niteshots, or other devices using 850nm IR, the creatures seemed to immediately sense this supposedly invisible light source and left the area.850nm IR is the current standard for illuminators as it gives good range, the beam ( where the light falls) is invisible, but, if you look directly into the light source, you will see a faint red glow.940nm IR is now available in LED illuminators. It has far less range than the 850nm, but there is nothing to see (by humans) if you look at it directly.

So... obviously it was a good idea to get a camera with illuminators that the Squatch couldn't see ... or so I thought for a whole year.

For a year... from Spring of 2009 to Spring of 2010 I would routinely set out some bait, like a Zagnut bar ( why mess with success ?), apples, bananas, peanut butter and little "Squeaky "toys. I would place the TV camera with its 940 IR about 20 feet away in a tree, and descent it with Red Fox Urine. It is about the size of a lemon. The Thermal Imager was placed about 90 feet away and both were run from 1am till 7 am, recording continuously. It was my practice to go for a walk each night, around 11pm, with the larger Ratheon250 thermal Imager to a nearby old graveyard,hoping to catch something lurking about, then return to camp, drink two glasses of water and go to sleep. The water made me wake up, without the sound of an alarm, at around 1am, when I would turn on the TV camera, the Thermal, and both DVRs.

Once in awhile I would also run the Bushnell NV scope and a DVR pointing in the other direction from the bait. In that line of sight I am able to see for perhaps 400 feet down a dirt road and could take advantage of the 5x magnification of the device and its long range IR. I placed it near the tail lights of my car, hoping that at a distance the small red glow from the IR would be insignificant.I did this for a year............. and got NOTHING !!! Countless foxes, raccoons, deer, possums... but nothing of interest.

A few months ago I happened to be discussing my total failure with a friend from BC, and mentioned the new TV camera with the 940nm LEDs. He remarked that they had been using 940nm illuminators in Canada and in their opinion, the Squatches could either see, or somehow sense the IR radiation, regardless of it being completely invisable to humans.Scratch the TV camera.

Since Spring I have had two incidents of interest. In late June I put out a large jar of peanut butter, with a dollop of peanut butter on the lid. I closed the lid firmly and hung it from a string about 5 feet off the ground. In the morning ther jar was gone, and the lid, wiped or licked clean, was lying on the ground,completely unmarked. You need hands to do this.When I reviewed the tape... there was nothing on it. Whatever was able to unscrew the lid and walk off with the jar had come BEFORE 1 am. If it's not one thing it's another!!!!I now record from the moment I go to sleep till dawn.

It cooled down enough two nights ago to go out. I set up the usual stuff and recording equipment and went to sleep . As a change of pace I twice played a track from the SIERRA SOUNDS CD, which is grunts, growls and angy gibberish, recorded many years ago.I played it during the evening on my SUV's CD player, as loud as it would go. I was alone in the camp. It poured rain most of the night until 3 am when I awoke to the sound of a woman loudly and angrily arguing. As I got more clearly awake I realized that the voice was not speaking English.... or any other discernable language. It was gibberish, but the tone and puncuation made it sound, at first like a woman.It seemed to be coming from behind the tent, perhaps 50 to 100 yards away. I immediately got up and went out with the Ratheon Thermal, which I always keep by my sleeping bag , ready to go. It stopped as I left the tent and there was nothing to see with the thermal. Strange, but interesting since this was the first night I had played the SIERRA SOUNDS.

Fall will be here soon, and business will pick up markedly, I hope.

There have been numerous reports of activity from the Uwharries forest recently, from people having their camping trailer violently shaken in the middle of the night, followed by a scream, to footprints, more howls, and two brief daylight sightings. Just last week I got a call from a woman, an avid enthusiast, who told me of a evening sighting, multiple eyeshine incidents, and screams/howls, etc. All these were from a small Uwharrie lake where she has been fishing over the years with her brother, and former and present husbands.

I visited the lake, which has only one point of accesss and is little used, since there are two large lakes right by it.It looks very promising and I plan to return for a night when it gets cooler.I will be going out to Bluff Creek, home of the Paterson/Gimlin film in Sept. Then it's back to the Uwharrie. This is such a strange business. One minute I feel success is right around the corner, the next I dispair of anything interesting ever happening again. It's lucky I like camping just for the sake of being out in the woods.

Michael Greene

More on the way...