Appalachian Winged Weirdies, 2007-2008

Pennsylvania researcher Stan Gordon has passed along this report to me for sharing at Cryptomundo:

This past February, I wrote about a man who reported a very close observation of a giant bird in neighboring West Virginia in late September or early October, 2007. The man was driving on a rural two lane roadway outside of the town of Clendenin, at about 8 A.M. when he had to step hard on his brakes, to avoid hitting a giant flying creature in the middle of the road. The giant bird was only a few yards ahead of him, and was feeding on road kill. The witness, an avid hunter, was startled by the size of the creature, which stood at least four feet tall, with its head extending above the roof line of his vehicle.

The bird was covered with very dark brown or black feathers. The head seemed dominant, but not over proportioned to its body. The neck seemed long and slightly crooked. The beak was very long and large, and the eyes were very dark. But the feature which stood out was the massive wingspan of the bird. The wingspan was easily as wide as the two lane road. The witness stated, “The wings were as I can remember, as arms of a human are attached. It had shoulders. It had a very muscular upper torso and the wings were as if they were its arms.”

The wing tips stirred the dust and gravel on both sides of the roadway as it ran to become airborne. The witness later returned to the site and measured the distance across the road from edge to edge. It was 21 feet. The witness stated that he was in a slight state of shock as he watched the creature fly off. The witness later tried searching for the identify this bird, but the closest creature he could find in a book was the drawing of a terratorn, an extinct bird. (For more details on this case, see “Was This A Close Encounter With A Thunderbird.”)

Rick Fisher, a researcher from Lancaster County, and Director of the Paranormal Society of Pennsylvania received a report from a witness who also saw a strange flying creature. Rick indicated that the witness appeared to be very credible and sincere, and wanted to remain anonymous due to his profession. This sighting was believed to have occurred about June or July of 2007, near the community of Granite Run. The witness was driving through the area at about 1:30 A.M., when he stopped to get some gas.

While pumping the gas, he heard a scratching sound which appeared to be coming from the roof of a nearby building. The man observed a dark shadow which he described as a being which stood from 3 to 4 feet tall, in a hunched position. He was able to observe that it had wings, but no feathers. The wings were above the creatures head. The witness felt that the creature was observing him, and from what he could see from the shape, it didn’t appear to be that of a bird.

The witness left the location for a brief time, and when he returned, he heard a whooshing sound and wings flapping, and could see that the creature had flown over to another nearby structure. The man had to be somewhere, and he left the area, still wondering about what he saw. When Rick interviewed the witness, he was certain that this was not a bird, owl, or anything he was familiar with.

Rick Fisher also received another giant flying creature report, which occurred about 8 miles outside of Harrisburg, in a very rural area. This sighting is believed to have taken place during the early morning hours of February 23, 2008. The driver said that he was driving about 35-40 miles per hour, when a huge bird like thing appeared from above the trees, came down and seemed to hover above his vehicle. The witness made Rick aware that he is an active hunter and angler, and had never seen anything like this before. He stated that the thing was huge, but wasn’t sure that he could call it a bird. The shadow of the creature covered his entire truck.

The driver who had a gun permit, and had the weapon with him, stopped his truck, and got out to get a better look at the creature. Whatever it was, had now flown above the trees and was moving away. The witness who has watched many birds in the woods, said this thing kind of soared or glided without a flapping motion. The witness admitted that he was quite scared during the observation, and stressed how huge the creature was, and stated,” like prehistoric almost.” The witness went on to say that he knew what he saw, and if people want to call him crazy that is fine.

Another more recent sighting of a giant winged something, just came to my attention. Jim Brown, an experienced paranormal researcher from Fayette County, provided me with details about this case which he is currently investigating.

This incident occurred on May 20, 2008, at about 2 P.M. in Washington County, Pennsylvania. The weather was in the 50s, and partly sunny at the time. The location of the sighting was about two miles north of US Route 40, from the southbound lanes of PA Route 43. The roadway is a four lane divided highway, two north and two south, with a grass median between them. The witness who Jim interviewed, was traveling south on the four lane roadway, about two miles from the Route 40 interchange. The communities of Brownsville and California were off to his left, across from the Monongahela River.

As the man traveled down the road, his attention was drawn to what he thought at first was an aircraft moving over the trees. He soon noticed that the wings were moving. The flying thing was moving in the direction of his car, so he pulled off the road, and got out to get a better look. The winged thing passed over the car and moved behind the witness, about 100 feet overhead. At that point this creature appeared to be gliding, and getting lower, and it looked more like a giant bat than a bird.

The witness could see no feathers, only short dark gray or black hair on the body. The wings appeared to be a membrane stretched over bone. It was a little difficult to see the details due to the sky being so bright. The witness commented that a small amount of light could be seen through the membrane. He emphasized that it was not solid like metal. As the man watched, the creature dropped lower from the sky behind his car. Apparently other motorists also caught sight of the huge flying animal.

One car stopped down the road, and a person got out. That driver had a camera with him, and was seen taking pictures of the flying creature. As they watched, the creature glided down to no more than 20 feet above the road surface, and was seen flapping its wings once or twice. With each wing flap, the creature appeared to rise about 20 feet higher above the roadway.

Since the creature was flying so low, its huge wingspan was very evident to the witness. The man told Jim that when the creature spread its wings,they extended beyond the one edge of the pavement, to the other side of the two lane road. That would be about 20 feet or more in length.

The creature flew off towards the west, and was lost from sight over the trees on that side of the road. The man with the camera was seen running into the woods following the creature. The witness expressed to Jim that he was not going to stay around that location any longer and decided to leave. He was concerned that he could be attacked. He commented that this flying creature was big enough that it could easily pick up a man. There were no sounds or other effects reported as the creature moved over. The entire observation was estimated to have lasted about 45 seconds to one minute.

We are hopeful that the person who took the pictures of this creature will contact Jim Brown or me, Stan Gordon. If anyone else has had a similar encounter, I, Stan Gordon, am interested in hearing from them.

Loren Coleman 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.

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