Update: Mystery Flying Cryptid
Posted by: Loren Coleman on July 24th, 2006
This is the original uncropped photograph.
Thanks to beautifu11ybroken and Iggy Makarevich for their separate assistance in obtaining this.
Does the full-framed photo give some more helpful insights into what this might be?
For more details on this photograph, please see the previous posting on the Mystery Flying Cryptid Photo.
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.
I do not see any shadow in the ‘meadow’ that corresponds to the UFO – in the true sense is how I mean that as it is unidentified. So it appears the object is close to or over the mountain in the background.
Suspect hoax or something really is over that mountain. What? Maybe some sort of experimental aircraft? Still not ready to call it a possible living animal.
well its not something on the lens or out like that its in the sky but possible could be anything.
It looks to me that it may be a chip in the lens glass. I agree with comments on the previous post that it most resembles a duck. Albeit a duck in a death spiral. There is just something wrong about the perspective of it for it to be further away from the camera and over the hills. It looks too large to fly that low, and also you would not not notice something that big. So there should be some testimony to support the validity of an animal if indeed this were an animal. It just seems out of place as if it has been “added”.
It looks a little like a kite to me. The way it is angled makes it look a little like there is a string attached to it that connects to someone off of the right side of the photo.
Looks like a hang glider or a kite to me..
This pic isn’t of sufficient resolution to make out any real detail. Had the last article not mentioned the camera was taking photos of deer, it would be impossible to distinguish these deer from horses or even coyote, much less make identification of the object in the sky. This image appears to have been reduced in size, does anyone still have access to the original image file before conversion? Optimizing graphics for webpages renders them useless for identification purposes, however .JPG are generally useless anyway because of the compression formulae used. Try using .BMP for original storage, as image detail and information is better preserved. 35mm film stock is still the best way to photo-document.
it’s something, what it is, I don’t know?
I see what Mysteriousness is talking about and I agree. It looks like a glider style kite.
Come on, guys, it’s a bug that flew by when the picture was snapped. Moth, dragonfly, or something like that.
I’m still in agreement with Mnynames assessment in the previous post. It’s just trash possibly kicked up by the passing train.
Not sure but I agree with some on the kite or hang glider theory. I think anyway.
GREAT NEWS!!!!! I live near Plymouth, NH where this photo was claimed to be taken. The smudge isn’t the problem with the photo! There is a major issue with the story because we do not have red deer in NH. I have been hunting here for years. We have white tail deer and they certainly do not herd like the specs in the pic. Only thing that herds up here is cows and sheep. that pic doesn’t look like either. There are no handgliding areas near Plymouth that I know of, but it could be an ultralite (handglider with lawnmower engines). Ultralites use field like that to take off and land. Not sure about any passenger trains in Plymouth either. Maybe within 20 miles but not sure of Plymouth.
If it were a chip in the lens, I don’t believe this is the type of irregularity you’d see. If we could see the picture before this one was taken, and the one after we’d be able to determine if in fact it had anything to do with the camera. This picture does verify what I said in my post when the cropped edition of this picture was posted, that it was taken through the window of the train. Looking in the top left corner of this photo you can see the top window edge. Now I’m leaning towards it being something stuck to the outside glass of this window more than ever.
Forgot to hit submit before I left the house to go to a store. While coming back home I saw what appeared to be something flying with a profile similar to what’s been reported. The long tail-like appendage behind the body and wings. It makes me wonder how many of these might be misidentified Great Blue Herons. They fly with their legs stretched out behind them, and are quite large with wingspans of six feet or more.
Nothing more than a duck or goose – no big mystery here
Digger 44 is correct and incorrect. There are no “wild” red deer in New Hampshire. However, there are over 20 red deer and elk farms scattered around New Hampshire. Please note the fence in the foreground of the photo. Red deer on farms do herd.
So it’s back to square one, as the location-of-the-deer issue is a distraction, apparently.
ok, important question about this pic: why are we using this one to “prove” the existance of flying dinos in Africa? This is New Hampshire? I thought, I might be wrong, that the east coast was pretty populated throughout. Something of that size would have been noticed and probably shot at. Well, whatever that thing is, it is unbalanced in many ways. If we are looking at a wing to the right, the left one seems longer. There seems to be the possibility of a fusalage. Also, whatever that is, it is posing no threat to the herd below. They are still standing around eating and stuff. If the flying dinos are/were carnivorous, and “this one” is a common thing around there, the animals would be in panic. It also couldn’t be a jet powered aircraft flying that low to the herd either, they would freak. It is possible that any shadow would still be in with the shadow of the hillside and trees. In fact it could be the “peak” of one of the shadows.
I just noticed something else about this full-framed photo: look in the upper left corner – doesn’t it look surprisingly artificial? And by artificial, I don’t mean Photoshop, I mean window-frame (as in not natural). Could this shot just be a photo someone took through a window of that heard and there was a nick/crack/smudge on the window?
It could be a Pterosaur but in New Hampshire? And who would want to be close to that thing when it gets hungry?
in the closeup picture it has the look of a dragon, torwards the backquarter of the object it looks like membranes of a downward sweeping wing.
I am also from NH and by Oct. 25th the forest is either full of colored leaves or vacant of leaves…
The leaves on the left are green and appear to be a pix taken in another season not fall or at least farther south.
As far as the item in question I still believe it’s something on the lens or window.
I like the insect idea, but I’ll assume the train was moving and I believe that the camera wouldn’t be able to pick up an insect in the shot.
Well, shumway, if you still are concentrating on these points (“why are we using this one to ‘prove’ the existance of flying dinos in Africa? This is New Hampshire?”), I think you missed something in the postings.
It was published in “association” with a drawing of an African cryptid when a press release about a New Guinea cryptid was discussed. But obviously this was about what it might be, not whether or not it really was an African cryptid.
🙂
The photo does have a beautiful scenery the picture to me is a question mark. You all have very good ideas to what is being seen in the picture. As I look at the photo it could be a fake? but then again it does show what looks like a giant bird like creature.
Several good ideas here, but as for a flaw in the window I have to wonder if that would cause a crisper, cleaner, more detailed area instead of blurred.
I can’t really determine an opinion on this one but I do have to say that if it was a chip on the lens, then wouldn’t this have appeared in all of the pictures taken?
I was really intrigued with this photo when I first saw it, but the more I examined it, the more I realized that I recognize that shape. There’s a trick of scale going on, but in the opposite direction of the camera lens.
I say it’s a flock of starlings, way over on the other side of that ridge. The camera has caught them at the top of a big swoop, just as the whole flock is turning.
Here’s a closer view of swooping starlings, with a similar density and profile. [link]It doesn’t show the whole flock, but you can see the similar shape. Here’s an article about that photo. [link] Perhaps the mystery photo also shows starlings avoiding a predator.
A smear of the lens, I think NOT!
I am 99.9% sure it is a simple leaf blown by the wind! Just very close to the camera…
Guys…..its a leaf.
I agree with David V. The leaf is blowing off the plant to the left of the photo.
Here is my two cents worth, Could it be a picture taken from a car with the window up and the subject in question is actually some dirt on the car window? ( I think it would be the passager window as something like the roof is in the upper left corner, and ther seems to be a glare in the middle of the pic.
Lemme see…a field of geese with a ‘ufo’ above it…I’m guessing it’s a GOOSE. Call me wacky.
ok here is some further info. there is one red deer farm in Plymouth, NH used for meat sales. It is the first hit on Google if you search “red deer farm new hampshire.” It has to be the place the pic was taken.
Thank you Mysteriousness (17) and superd (30) – it took 17 messages before someone commented on the window frame!
One Eyed Cat (23) – of course it’s out of focus – the camera is focusing on infinity, not the window. See how the window frame itself has a blurry edge?
Keep in mind the context – the photographer did not recall anything flying when they took the photo – they only saw the shape once they viewed the exposures. You’d have to have tunnel vision to take that photo and not see a monster flying through the sky.
mrdark (31) – more like a goose *chase*!
An obvious Silurian Bird of Prey from the Silurian hyperbole nebula replete with cryogenic embryoes of sasquatch hybrids ready for implantation in droves of receptive hypnotized psychic surrogate mothers recruited from the classified ads of the Enquirer…JMHO
Call the local TV folks….the Silurians saucer boys are back…
sometimes seeing ain’t believing…
ole beadyeyed bub
I have seen this before, either on the C2C website (under the image section) or some other mystery website. It is either a still from a movie (it almost looks like rodan maybe) which has been superimposed on another picture, or it is from a book, (also with some original photo-shopping). Either way I am 100% sure I have seen this circulating on the web before. I will try to pinpoint where I saw it and report back. While I think there is something to the stories of African flying cryptids, this picture has nothing to do with it other than being mentioned as said above. But then again, thats just my two cents worth.
Looks like a bird to me..
The starlings is an interesting suggestion, but the object seems a bit too solid, or at least with relatively distinct edges, in my opinion…I think I have to stick with floating debris on this one…
youcantryreachingme wrong about the 17 messages before the window frame was mentioned. Check #13 I mentioned it there, and if you check the previous entry about this photo, in it’s cropped version from a couple days ago, I also suggested it was most likely shot through the train’s window. And I still believe it is nothing more than something stuck to the window.
Ah yes, the focus thing. I did not think of that, but then photography is not my medium for artwork, Pencil and paper are what I do most so any focusing problems I would do would be on purpose.
Just glad the art is starting to come back to me.
klingon bird of prey
Well, if it “is” something other than a glancing shot of bird-poop on the window, then it kinda looks like a goose or something similar coming in to land.
Possibly doing a vocal call, with its head thrown back slightly like that, in a glide prior to a wing-flapping flare and landing.
Having said that, if it was something on the window, then its possible it shouldnt be showing any of the apparent shading as seen on the close-up crop shown elswhere. With the backlighting of the bright scene behind, wouldn’t it be more of a uniformly dark blob?
Is this a digital photo? The quality kind of reminds me of an early Kodak digital camera I once owned, very similar date format style, that consistently took somewhat blurry images, no matter the setting.
But what do I know, just my two cents…
My very first thought on seeing the image is that it is a piece of origami-style art, folded from a newspaper, and tossed up into the air for the breeze to catch it.
I’ll chime in with:
#1 – it’s a piece of dirt or a booger on the glass window.
#2 – a glider.
#3 – ole bub’s explanation is my fall back position 🙂
it is a BUTTERFLY.
Fruit bat? B2 flying away from the camera? Doesn’t look like the Canadian Geese we have here (Giant subspecies), which nearly outnumber the people.
You guys cant tell thats taken through a car window? The glass is broken on the right side of the car (actually probably a truck by the slope) and that is a half moon window chip. The reason is blurred is because its about 2 ft in front of the lense.
Also “whitetailed deer” can have several shades of color and one of them is a redish brown color usually in spring as they shed their winter coat. They can heard up in the Midwest into herds of 50 or more deer and out west “Montana” in heards of 100 or more is very common.
Photo was taken from a train? Appears to be a leaf blown off a nearby tree as the train goes by. It’s proximity to the train makes it appear larger.
Wayne
On first inspection I immediately thought of a hang glider. It certainly doesn’t look like anything alive.
I live in NH, and I was astonished when I saw this was taken in NH because I believe I saw a giant bird once.
I am not certain that it wasn’t due to distance and perception, but as I was driving down 11A in Gilford (near Gunstock Mountain) I caught a shadow from the corner of my eye. It was a clearly bird, and seemed rather large, so I assumed it was flying at a relatively close distance, almost parallel to me.
But then I saw it pass out of view, BEHIND one of the mountains in the distance, and realized it had to have been much farther away than I thought, and thus much, much larger than a normal bird.
To me that looks like a giant bat, but a species like that only lives in india
I lived in Giford NH for many years. I also rode many of the coal fired steam trains that run for the tourist trade. They leave trails of large, fluffy ASH in their wake…