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My First Encounter With Strangeness

It was certainly not a peacock . There were no feathers that I could see. It was also at a height [much higher than what I can find on Youtube]. I estimate that this bird was much larger than a sandhill crane. Clearly had a tail that was longer than the legs that were trailing behind. I have also never seen any bird like it since then.
 
My brother and his wife raise chickens. The crowing adolescents have voices like young teenage boys -- their voices break and squawk in the same way. I can only imagine what it would be like having that noise woven into an early morning dream!

When I was a kid on a farm I remember a hefty metal syringe being used to inject a pellet (hormone ?) beneath the skin in the necks of adolescent cockerels. This stopped them crowing, possibly by effeminating them - can't see that still being legal practice.
What was really strange the first few times were foxes barking in the woods at night outside my bedroom window. Their bark ends abruptly which is other-worldly at the best of times, but then you factor in the echo from the woods and the pitch-dark.
 
It was certainly not a peacock . There were no feathers that I could see. It was also at a height [much higher than what I can find on Youtube]. I estimate that this bird was much larger than a sandhill crane. Clearly had a tail that was longer than the legs that were trailing behind. I have also never seen any bird like it since then.
Id say it was the legendary thunderbird
 
Sounds like a cross between a chicken and a cat—very weird!
 
I found myself wondering idly today - what did people in the distant past think about Strange Happenings?

We are so exposed to other people, with Facebook and fora like this and general chit chat online, do we have more of a line of 'that shouldn't happen'? When in the past we may have accepted odd things as just how things are?

And does some of this account for past stories of fairy folk - missing teaspoons? The fairies took them. Whilst nowadays we tie ourselves into knots trying to work out what 'really' happened?
 
And does some of this account for past stories of fairy folk - missing teaspoons?
Well, they had no yogurt pots back then, so fairy folk it had to be!
 
I had an encounter back in the mid-70s when I was just a kid. I used to pick cucumbers alongside of migrants for extra cash and more than likely to keep me busy and out of trouble. This happened on a Sunday and I was in the field pulling full bags of pickles into a single row so when the tractor came along it is a lot easier to pick up. Anyways I heard a strange sound that was kind of like a cackle but strong-out. I ignored it but then heard it again a lot closer and immediately saw where it came from. A very large strange looking bird that was flying overhead that at first I mistaken for a sandhill crane but quickly realized this was not only bigger but looked weird. I first noticed a crown on the head that came to a point and a tail which was longer than the legs [it was easily twice the size of a crane]. It spooked me for a few days and finally had a chance to go to the city and look for info on what I had seen. After about 6-8 months I found a mailing address for Mr.Whitcomb [who I had read that he was interested in strange birds and had traveled to Papua New Guinea] about a month or two later I actually received a letter from him.
Hi 'damando5,' Sounds like the large bird you witnessed might well be one of these?
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...CB38174E989B428A35DACB3&view=detail&FORM=VIRE
 
I think we'd established it wasn't a heron, from the tail thing?

I did find myself wondering if it may be a misperception - unless Darmando was a bird watching child, characteristics could have become over exaggerated by unfamiliarity.
Well, to a youngster the exceptionally long legs at the rear of a Heron might well appear to be a long tail. They also have the very distinct head crest, and also have that part-prehistoric appearance when in flight.
In fact, there is one old Heron that frequents my area and he is large - with a wingspan of something just over seven feet.
 
Well, to a youngster the exceptionally long legs at the rear of a Heron might well appear to be a long tail. They also have the very distinct head crest, and also have that part-prehistoric appearance when in flight.
In fact, there is one old Heron that frequents my area and he is large - with a wingspan of something just over seven feet.
darmando did say that the tail trailed behind the legs, so presumably saw both tail AND legs, but yes, to a quick glance the whole thing could have just sort of 'merged'.

darmanda, any idea if it could have been a heron?
 
Listen. In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?

 
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