Knollenbergs’ Flap: It Was A Peahen

A peahen, shown here, is the female of the peafowl, which can refer to any of three species of bird in the genera Pavo and Afropavo of the pheasant family.

Scott Maruna, the new energetic editor of The Anomalist (www.anomalist.com), treks into uncomfortable country on October 8, 2006. With an unfortunate blog on the Lawndale Thunderbird, here, Maruna introduces some details of the July 25, 1977 event where a large bird reportedly lifted Marlon Lowe into the air, then writes:

One particular contemporary event that has been complete [sic – LC] ignored might just hold the clue that could explain the crazy events of that summer.

On July 22th, just three days prior to the now infamous Lawndale incident, a rural New Holland man [New Holland IL is 20 miles from Lawndale] saw an exotic bird on their farm. An account from the Lincoln Courier described it as such:

“It was larger than a turkey,” said Kenneth Knollenburg, describing the bird on his farm. “I’d guess it weighed 25 pounds or so.” He said the bird was a dull gray with a white neck, small beak and a crest of feathers on its head, hee [sic] added. The bird’s wingspan was estimated at four feet.

“It wasn’t afraid of people,” the New Holland farmer explained. “We wondered at the time if it hadn’t escaped from a zoo.”

Knollenberg, who lives tem miles west of Lincoln on Fifth St. Road, said his family first noticed the strange bird at their farm around 7 p.m. Friday. “It was sitting on top of the barn,” he said. The bird was making a “loud, trumpeting noise,” he added.

Knollenberg said the bird, which flew from rooftop to rooftop of his farm buildings, came down to the ground to eat some corn which the family had thrown out for it to eat.

“It acted like it was used to having people around,” the farmer said. “You could walk up to it, within 50 or 60 feet, and it wouldn’t fly away. It wasn’t afraid of people.”

Knollenberg said the bird flew away sometime after nightfall. He and his wife, by looking in the encyclopedia, said the bird closely matched the identity of an African crested crane.

Looking for something exotic, despite the eventual identification, the New Holland eyewitnesses found a picture of an African crested crane (above) and thought that’s what they had seen. I can certainly, with kindness, understand how initially the Knollenbergs first saw this bird in the one they were seeing – with its crest and making those noises that peacocks make.

These puzzle pieces seem to infer that perhaps young Marlon was indeed “attacked” by a California condor. The “attack” though was far more likely an attempted shoulder landing, modified by a rightfully panicked boy. These California condors and African crested cranes were perhaps escapees or releasees and—finding themselves in the foreign environment of central Illinois—didn’t live long enough to create but the small collection of sightings we have today from the latter weeks of July 1977.

Mark A. Hall has discussed this case, for years, in his writings on the central Illinois events of 1977. Indeed, it is right there in the very accessible retelling and examinations of this case in Hall’s 2004 Paraview Press book, Thunderbirds: America’s Living Legends of Giant Birds.

As Hall points out on page 19, the Knollenbergs – who said it happened on July 22 and was a very different bird than seen by the Lowes – came forward after the media flap (excuse the pun) caused by the Lawndale incident of July 25. Many people wanted to get their 15 minutes of fame in the rush to "tell stories" about every large bird sighting in central Illinois. I am not saying this is why the Knollenbergs told their tale, but within the context of the media circus after the Lowe’s airlift experience, the Knollenbergs’ story was one of many appearing in the press. The Knollenbergs – in 1977 – gave a description and even showed a photograph of the bird.

The species the Knollenbergs saw and photographed was easily and positively identified as a female peacock, a peahen. Hall also mentions: "This specimen was probably among some loose peafowl reported by construction workers at nearby Middleton. Those birds were thought to have originated with a tame group of peafowl kept by a landowner in Corwin Township.

Scott Maruna’s notion that escaped birds were behind the Thunderbird reports of 1977 is something that those of us, including Jerry Coleman, Mark A. Hall, and myself, checked out in 1977. All of the reports of escapees had nothing to do with the giant birds seen by the Lowes and others. Such stories, however, are good examples of what Charles Fort called the "Wipe," an attempt by the media to kill the story and move on to the next three or nine day wonder. If you examine the Mothman flap, you will note many common and exotic known bird reports are in the mix, including, once again, cranes.

As far as Maruna’s theory that what might have been seen was an illegal captive of a California condor that had escaped, well, such a solution is almost as incredible as a living Thunderbird. Every living condor is given a number, tracked, and its location is known specifically, from day to day. In 1977, no more than 30 California condors were in existence and none were escapees from anywhere or stolen illegals. Releases of California condors in California and Arizona are not ever "lost." Releases or escapees of Andean condors, ditto.

Sorry, from the uncomfortable nature of how well-known the Knollenbergs report is, to when and how it surfaced, to the fact their "bird" is known to be a peahen, all the way to the illogic of an "escaped condor" explanation, Scott Maruna’s blog "Neglected Event May Reveal Much About Illinois’ Giant Birds of ’77" merely reveals he didn’t do his homework.

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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