NM Giant Owl
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 12th, 2010
Giant owls did exist, at one time. The Cuban fossil species, Ornimegalonyx oteroi, was one of them.
As a followup to the New Mexico Bighoot reports, this account has come into Cryptomundo:
The year was 1986.
My family and I were driving south near Corona, NM; it was around 2:30am, when in the distance we all saw a 3 foot tall giant owl. At fist we were not sure but as we approached it, we realized that our eyes were not playing tricks on us. My father who was driving about 80-85 miles an hour thought about swerving, but decided not to. As we approached the owl, it’s back was facing towards us, and with in two feet or so, the owl’s head spun around, you could see it’s big eyes glowing from our car headlights.
Right before impact the owl opened its wings, (about 3 feet long on both sides) and flew up trying to avoid being hit. The owl ended up hitting the roof where it meet with the windshield; I immediately turned and looked back to see if the owl had fallen on the road, but I did not see anything fall from the sky.
The next day my father and I checked out the car; there was no signs of damage to roof. My family and I did not think about it much but after my grandmother’s death only days after, my mother feels that the owl had some connection with her dying. My mother feels that the owl was sent to make my father swerve and causing us to roll our car and all of us dying. I am not sure about all of that, but what I am sure is that night was the most freakiest night of my life; just the way the owl slowly turned it had around still give me the chills today.
Brian
Albuquerque, NM
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.
Factoring in misperception, 3 feet isn’t out of the question for, say, a gray owl, which can reach upwards of 34 inches. Plus, he doesn’t give much of a description of what the owl looked like other than its size. While it would be rare to find a great gray so far south, it’s not impossible.
The great horned owl, which is indigenous to the entire sub-arctic North American continent, could also fit the description as it has a 60″ wingspan.
I feel terrible that the first thing I thought of when I read that was the crumpled body of U.S. Forest Service costumed mascot Woodsy Owl being found on the side of the road the next morning. “Give a hoot – don’t AAAARGHHHH!!!!”