Drudge Report’s Big Birds
Posted by: Loren Coleman on July 3rd, 2006
During the first weekend in July 2006, various published photographs from the Florida site of NASA’s probable Space Shuttle launch showed rather large birds near the location.
One of these pictures (see below) was so dramatic that Matt Drudge commented about it on his Sunday night radio program. He remarked that he was being emailed so many questions about it he removed the pix from his Drudge Report website for a time. (Drudge definitely is aware of cryptozoology and infrequently posts news items about sightings of cryptids.)
However, from further photographs published by Drudge (below) and elsewhere, it is obvious these aren’t Thunderbird teratorns or Mothman-related giant owls, but turkey and black vultures.
As it turns out, birds are a common problem around the launch sites and have been for some time. The following is a selection of past photographs of various avian intruders from around the NASA operations. Most of these are from 2005.
Click image for full-size version
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.
That first photo shows how dramatic forced perspective can be – even when it is not forced by man.
What we need to remember is the area around the launch area – indeed The space center itself – is a wildlife refuge. so bird problems are not unreasonable
The bird in the first photo looks absolutely huge but it’s pretty obviously an optical illusion… the bird must be considerably closer to the camera than the space shuttle.
Richard C. Hogland has been giving shuttle updates on Coast to Coast AM. I can’t remember what night it was but he said a turkey vulture actually collided with the shuttle’s fuel tank. Turkey vultures cause more aircraft damage than any other bird. Coast to Coast AM’s Friday show was Giant Birds of North America, where Ian Punnet interviewed Mark Hall on the subject. This interview might have someting to do with all the hype.
Those vultures and that white bird in the last photo look pretty interesting without being cryptids.
I have an out of print book Mysteries of the Unexplained 1989. An article on pg.45 The Last Pterodactyl. In 1856 as railway workers were working on an unfinished tunnel, something with a 10′ 7” wingspan stumbled out of a piece of limestone they had just split. It had four legs joined by a membrane, like a bat. Talons for feet, and a mouth full of teeth. Its skin was like leather, black and oily. It was taken to the town of Gray and identified by a paleontology student as a pterodactyl.
The boulder it was in had a perfect mould of the thing. The Illustrated London News, February 9,1856, Pg.166.
There are several cases of reptiles and amphibians being encased in rocks and living for yeeaars. Hmmmm….
Khat it would be interesting to find out what happened to the remains of that creature and if any photos were taken or eyewitness drawings made.
I can see the headline now:
Thunderbird Found – In Pieces
Cape Canaveral (AP) – The surviving prehistoric vulture known as the Thunderbird, long a target of cryptozoologists, was confirmed today when pieces of huge, unidentifed, and partly charred feathers and assorted other body parts floated to earth after the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery. NASA safety officers who looked at videotape estimated the Shuttle’s external tank speared the bird about nine seconds after liftoff, with the Shuttle traveling some 400 mph. Most of the resulting fragments were barbecued instantly by the Shuttle’s exhaust. A friend at NASA presented cryptozoologist Tork Darwyn with the largest identifiable portion of the bird, an upper leg. Dawwyn’s official verdict; “Tastes like chicken.”
One time I was watching shuttle blast-off reruns and one of the cameras showed a closeup of the very tip of the external fuel tank, with a bird sitting right on it. The thing ignited, the tank rocked slightly out of frame, then rocked back in, with the bird still on it, and –whoosh!
Really, the funniest thing ever shown on the NASA Channel.
The 1800’s entombed living pterodactyl case that Khat mentions is a famous newspaper hoax. It was probably dreamt up based on the numerous real reported cases of living frogs/toads that came out of entombment.
Good Story for the readers.
Well, that bird will have an interesting story to tell when he gets to the happy hunting ground. Can you imagine him sitting around with other deceased birds, being quiet while they mention how they were killed by cars, jets, wind turbines, or smacking into windows, then being asked what happened to him? “So what got you, Bill?” “Umm…Space Shuttle.” There’s a Far Side cartoon in there somewhere…