Mystery Flying Cryptid Photo
Posted by: Loren Coleman on July 23rd, 2006
Cropped and unidentified versions of the above photograph have been floating around the internet, sparingly. I noticed one used in conjuction with the Ropen press release. It clearly seemed out of context, but nevertheless worthy of further examination.
Cryptomundo reader Brian Gaugler tracked it down to the ufocasebook.com files, and located the text of the who and the where behind the photo:
2003 – New Hampshire. November 6 – On the 25th of October in Plymouth, Joy P. was in the middle of a train trip. While observing the landscape, she decided to take photographs of the passing scenery. One of her pictures of red deer in a forest would show a strange, flying craft of a triangular shape. According to the Joy’s statement on the North American website Coast to Coast, when making the series of photographs, she never observed anything out of the ordinary while taking the landscape pictures.
Okay, I have to expose the bias of the website of origin. How does this show a "craft"?
Basically, what we have here is rather elementary, upon a second look. A photograph was taken. It shows something flying in the air. The person doing the picture-taking does not know what it was. It is an unknown.
The photo was sent to a UFO website. It was found in said file. But it also has been posted in conjunction with the Ropen reports.
But consider this… “UFO” means “unidentified flying object.” There is no direct connection between the object photographed and it being a known craft from outer space, which appears to be the immediate leap that seems to be happening merely due to where this photo was filed/found. Perhaps, as often happens, it was misfiled?
This can be placed in the "Mystery Flying Cryptid" photographic file just as easily as it can be in a ufo file.
Is it definitiely a photo of a Ropen? Of course, not.
It probably is not an African Kongomato either (as seen here in this William M. Rebsamen drawing from Cryptozoology A to Z).
But then, it is not outside the realm of possibilities that this might be a Thunderbird, a Mothman, a bird, a bat, or any number of natural objects or flying zoological or cryptozoological species. Just because something ends up in a so-called “UFO file” does not mean that it is “an outer space alien.” It only means it was an unidentified object seen flying, it was not sent to a cryptozoologist for an investigation, and Cryptomundo didn’t exist yet. 🙂
As I have mentioned with the Mothman data, there are plenty of reasons a cryptozoological point of view should be used in an analysis of perhaps mislabelled and misfiled information.
What do you see in the photograph?
What are your ideas for what it might be?
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
All the comments here range from flights of fancy to logical reasoning meaning everyone has their own visual perspectives in regards to the photo. As for myself the image is too indiscernible to make a fair assessment so I’ll just choose one or all of the above.
It’s a fluffy duck… or, it’s guck in front to the camera (on the train window, perhaps, it’s awfully fuzzy).
Howdy,
Looks to me to be a flying goose. Pretty straight foreward, and common in the area. It’s flying from right to left, look at this goose for a perspective comparison. It’s pretty obivious what I think it is.
Honestly, that does look out of focus with the rest of the scenery. The areas around the actual item lead me to believe it was pasted in somehow. It is in the shape of a supposed Pterosaur, but I agree with Trapster. It does look alot like a
Canadian Goose, in the motion of flying.
Just some observations: The underside of the wing seems to be whitish in color, and the head area seems to have a sort of striped band around it.
You can just see the other wingtip in motion, as well. They seem to have taken a picture while the supposed cryptid is gliding, otherwise it’d probably be blurred if it was in the motion of flapping on the air thermals.
I think it is a crane flying. Cranes are fairly common in that area of NH. They have a long neck like that.
It really does not look like a speck on the lens, on the window, or a butterfly. look closely, you can see a neck and a head.
Something is flyig in that pic. Probbaly a normal bird.
But it does have the look of a pterodactyl.
interesting pic
Swallowtail Butterfly. It’s flying from left to right; most of you thought right to left.
Do you see?