Weird Winged Things

[Impybat]

Here is another strange account from my Fortean Files. This took place in January of 1997, I believe. I was working at an after school center for elementary aged kids as a teacher doing homework tutoring and arts & crafts, basically glorified babysitting. The children from our town's schools who participated in the program were bused over except for a few kids, who were coming from the school next door to the center, so we would walk over to meet them. There was a short paved path from our parking lot to the school playground, and this is where we would meet the kids coming from that school.

My co-teacher and I headed over to meet the kids. We were about 15 minutes early and were sitting on the path enjoying the nice weather. We had been having a week of unseasonably warm weather, and all the snow had melted. This particular day was bright, clear, and sunny.

I looked up and noticed movement in the sky. It was barely discernible from the rest of the sky, but I saw what seemed to be a flock of something, way high–impossibly high–in the air. My first thought was that they were a flock of hawks migrating, but it was the wrong season and they were way too high in the air. They were moving slowly. I tried pointing them out to my co-teacher, but he didn’t see them. Eventually the kids arrived and I lost sight of the flying things.

There's another account that seems similar to my experiences in The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel. It describes the Italian astronomer Ricco, while studying the sun at 8 am on November 30, 1880, at the observatory in Palermo, Sicily, witnessed “winged bodies in two parallel lines slowly traveling, apparently across the disc of the sun. They looked like large birds or cranes.”

That wasn’t exactly what I saw, but it was close.

 

[Min Bannister]

Trying to visualise this. You say they were extremely high up and were difficult to see, may I ask how you knew they had wings?

 

[Impybat]

That is a good question. They were making a sort of wiggling movement, I guess? That sounds weird.

 

[Min Bannister]

That is a good question. They were making a sort of wiggling movement, I guess? That sounds weird.

No it doesn't sound weird, that is actually kind of what I was thinking. I am also wondering if that sort of winged up-and-down movement could be noticed from that far away. I am not too sure. I tend to see either big birds like geese flying (pretty obvious what they are) or little ones much closer.

Did you get an idea of how many of the things there were?

 

[Impybat]

I honestly don't know how many, I only recall a smaller group--not thousands of say, starlings. I do remember the movement. They seemed to me at the time to be flying so far up. It's possibly I wasn't correctly estimating how far away they actually were. But at the time it struck me as really bizarre.

 

[Min Bannister]

It's possibly I wasn't correctly estimating how far away they actually were.

This is always the difficulty with trying to estimate how far away things are in the sky. There isn't really anything else for reference. Still it's an intriguing sighting though. Trying to identify something that is juuuust on the edge of your vision is quite infuriating!

 

[catseye]

I think I've written here before about the difficulty of identifying things in the sky.

I was driving back from York through the Castle Howard estate, a long straight road with lots of dips and rises. I happened to look up and see a black 'shape' in the air. I couldn't make sense of it at all. I stared and my brain was going like the clappers, wondering what the hell it was, how come nobody else was reacting, why it looked so odd...UFO?

Eventually I said to the kids in the back 'what the hell is THAT?' and got the bored response, 'it's just birds, mum.' It was, a flock of birds. But I am very used to seeing flocks of birds, we live in the middle of nowhere, birds are endemic. These weren't even behaving unusually, just flying along. But, for some reason, maybe the driving conditions, my eyes and brain just couldn't get together enough to identify them.

 

[Impybat]

I agree Min, and I am a terrible judge of distance, size, etc. I haven't seen anything like it since (but am always on the lookout!)

 

[Impybat]

I think I've written here before about the difficulty of identifying things in the sky.

I was driving back from York through the Castle Howard estate, a long straight road with lots of dips and rises. I happened to look up and see a black 'shape' in the air. I couldn't make sense of it at all. I stared and my brain was going like the clappers, wondering what the hell it was, how come nobody else was reacting, why it looked so odd...UFO?

Eventually I said to the kids in the back 'what the hell is THAT?' and got the bored response, 'it's just birds, mum.' It was, a flock of birds. But I am very used to seeing flocks of birds, we live in the middle of nowhere, birds are endemic. These weren't even behaving unusually, just flying along. But, for some reason, maybe the driving conditions, my eyes and brain just couldn't get together enough to identify them.

Catseye, that has happened to me except it turns out to be a plane with the sunlight glinting off of it. Similarly, I've been driving and have seen what looked like a person standing by the side of the road, only to have it turn out to be a bush or a mailbox.

 

[Min Bannister]

I agree Min, and I am a terrible judge of distance, size, etc. I haven't seen anything like it since (but am always on the lookout!)

I am going to be too from now on!

 

[catseye]

Catseye, that has happened to me except it turns out to be a plane with the sunlight glinting off of it. Similarly, I've been driving and have seen what looked like a person standing by the side of the road, only to have it turn out to be a bush or a mailbox.

There is a house I drive past on my way to work, practically every day. And practically every day I do the 'there's a person about to step out into the ro....it's just a bush.' It's like my brain is so intent on 'driving' that it can't do 'sensible comprehension of whereabouts' at the same time.

 

[IbisNibs]

I'm thinking that stuff like that bush could cause accidents.
(Maybe you could offer to make it into a shrub shaped topiary!)

 

[catseye]

I'm sure things like the bush are the cause of 'unexplained accidents' on many stretches of road. It's actually quite useful on my road because it comes just at the point where you need to start braking for the junction. Because of the positioning, you are actually almost past it before it catches your eye, so it's not like you think it's someone about to step out in front of you, more like someone waiting to cross behind you.

Very rural road though.

 

[Comfortably Numb]

...it turns out to be a plane with the sunlight glinting off of it.

Similarly, I've been driving and have seen what looked like a person standing by the side of the road, only to have it turn out to be a bush or a mailbox.

Some years ago, I was also been puzzled by a dazzling 'orb', in a clear blue sky.

I watched for quite a while and it seemingly remained stationery.

Eventually, it began to change shape and slowly became obvious this was a plane, glinting in the sun.

You have also reminded of...

Mystery creature spotted in Scottish countryside feared to be dangerous breed of long-necked lizard

Some felt the animal looked prehistoric and that Stirlingshire could be giving the Loch Ness monster a run for its money.

The Scottish SPCA could also not identify the creature.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/...ure-spotted-scottish-countryside-10839952.amp

Subsequently, our enigmatic crypoid, was emphatically concluded to be a tree stump.

 

[HypnosMetis]

There is a house I drive past on my way to work, practically every day. And practically every day I do the 'there's a person about to step out into the ro....it's just a bush.' It's like my brain is so intent on 'driving' that it can't do 'sensible comprehension of whereabouts' at the same time.

I've got a similar thing near me, I always think that there is an old lady standing by a house on my daily drive to work. It's just s post by a house, but I can't help but think it when I go past!

 

[escargot]

There is a house I drive past on my way to work, practically every day. And practically every day I do the 'there's a person about to step out into the ro....it's just a bush.' It's like my brain is so intent on 'driving' that it can't do 'sensible comprehension of whereabouts' at the same time.

There was a FT letter years ago about a bus route where new drivers would slow down for the woman in the red jacket at a stop. It was an illusion involving a pillar box.