Ed Bishop

Ed Bishop is a professional software engineer and scientist who has spent decades studying — and personally encountering — Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs, the current term for what most of us still call UFOs), cryptids, and a wide range of other paranormal phenomena.

He brings the precision of an engineer and the curiosity of a lifelong field investigator to subjects that usually live at the edges of polite conversation. UAPs, unknown animals (whether legendary, allegedly extinct, or simply not yet catalogued by mainstream science), and the broader landscape of high-strangeness are not abstract interests for him. They are things he has tracked, documented, and, on more than one occasion, met face-to-face.

Raised with deep roots in the Catskills — he spent his boyhood summers at a family cabin in Kingston — Ed has been investigating the region’s own particular brand of mystery for most of his life. The Catskills Witch, the Kinderhook Creature, reports of little people and gnomes that stretch back to Henry Hudson and earlier Native traditions, glowing orbs along old mine roads, the Hudson Valley UFO wave of the 1980s, and the quieter but persistent anomalous activity that still moves through these mountains are all part of the landscape he knows intimately.

In addition to his work as a software engineer and scientist, Ed is a naturalist, urban explorer, historian, and folklorist. He approaches these subjects with the dual toolkit of a working scientist and someone who has spent real time in the places where the stories originate. The result is a rare combination: rigorous observation paired with the willingness to follow the evidence wherever it leads, even when that evidence refuses to fit neatly into existing categories.

At the Catskills Halloween Festival, Ed brings that same grounded yet open-minded perspective to discussions of the region’s unexplained phenomena. Listeners can expect clear-eyed accounts, careful distinctions between what has been observed and what remains speculation, and the quiet authority of someone who has been walking these woods — and paying attention — for a very long time.

In short: a software engineer by profession, a field investigator by long practice, and one of the most thoughtful voices currently working the strange edges of the Catskills.

You can find more about Ed’s ongoing work and investigations on his Facebook page: facebook.com/ed.bishop.5667.