Favourite Cryptozoological creature/story?

[RenaissanceLady]

What do you think of the similar owlman stories/creature from the UK?

I hate to say it, but I'm completely unfamiliar with the owlman stories. Most cryptid stories have escaped me. If you know any accounts of the owlman which you would like to share, I'd love to read about them. I'd also appreciate your input. Thank you for the link.

 

[boomerang]

Mothman sightings are one of the few mentioned here that hold some fascination for me. But I don't think of Mothman as essentially cryptid in nature. He/it seems more like a slice of the larger paranormal spectrum.

 

[Psychedelic_Alchemist]

Mothman and wolfmen are quite fascinating overall. I really enjoyed reading Linda Godfrey's book Real Wolfmen. I also enjoyed Lyle Blackburn's book The Beast of Boggy Creek. There's a special place in my heart for bigfoot. That's one creature I truly hope does exist.

The whole chupacabra story interested me back in the 90s, but there seems to be little real evidence that such a creature even exists.

 

[Mystery-Student]

in regards to the giant bird sightings, i've had one sighting and it has stuck with me my whole life. i was at my aunt's house for the day and was outside just kind of playing/wandering around the woods behind her house( i liked to walk back to a set of train tracks and look for fossils in the stone that was used by the rails and look for the glass insulators that came off the electric poles). Anyway while back by the tracks something caught my attention to look up and saw a giant figure in the sky. I remember just looking at it in awe for a short time, not sure how long maybe 30 seconds. At the time i couldn't believe how enormous it was, that it would have dwarfed and hawk or eagle. The color was almost all a semi dark brown with a little white near the bottoms of the wings and around the stomach. After watching it for that short time I ran back to my aunt's house and wanted to show my mother but it was long gone. Something that has always puzzled me though is that during the whole time i watched it and times of looking at it while i ran back to the house, was that i never once saw it flap it's wings or even make any noticeable body movements whatsoever. It did fly in the "right" direction, you know, forward. And it did curve in its path but other than that it seemed to move too slow to be gliding or hovering on air currents and it just seemed motionless while flying. i know ten might seem young and that maybe it was mistaken as another bird or a plane, but i grew up always being outside, being brought into the woods all the time with my father who hunted and i was familiar with practically all wildlife. And the plane thing, i distinctly remember the feathers, there was no mistaking it for anything other than just a giant bird, similar in shape to hawk due to the shape of the wings and wing feathers(broad winged). One more thing to add is that i heard nothing throughout the whole incident from the sky, i can't recall if there were any sounds from the ground/woods other than it was relatively quiet outside. Aside from it being enormous is just seemed like an object that shouldn't have been there, i'm not sure how else to explain the oddity of seeing'watching it but feeling that it wasn't supposed to be "here."

 

[Mystery-Student]

so i guess my favorite crypto stories and creatures have always been the giant birds, thunderbirds, and the mothman creature. basically any stories that deal with flying cryptids and humanoid flying cryptids. The giant bird sightings and stories about thunderbirds have always fascinated me because of my own sighting, they just really hit home.

 

[Han]

in regards to the giant bird sightings, i've had one sighting and it has stuck with me my whole life. i was at my aunt's house for the day and was outside just kind of playing/wandering around the woods behind her house( i liked to walk back to a set of train tracks and look for fossils in the stone that was used by the rails and look for the glass insulators that came off the electric poles). Anyway while back by the tracks something caught my attention to look up and saw a giant figure in the sky. I remember just looking at it in awe for a short time, not sure how long maybe 30 seconds. At the time i couldn't believe how enormous it was, that it would have dwarfed and hawk or eagle. The color was almost all a semi dark brown with a little white near the bottoms of the wings and around the stomach. After watching it for that short time I ran back to my aunt's house and wanted to show my mother but it was long gone. Something that has always puzzled me though is that during the whole time i watched it and times of looking at it while i ran back to the house, was that i never once saw it flap it's wings or even make any noticeable body movements whatsoever. It did fly in the "right" direction, you know, forward. And it did curve in its path but other than that it seemed to move too slow to be gliding or hovering on air currents and it just seemed motionless while flying. i know ten might seem young and that maybe it was mistaken as another bird or a plane, but i grew up always being outside, being brought into the woods all the time with my father who hunted and i was familiar with practically all wildlife. And the plane thing, i distinctly remember the feathers, there was no mistaking it for anything other than just a giant bird, similar in shape to hawk due to the shape of the wings and wing feathers(broad winged). One more thing to add is that i heard nothing throughout the whole incident from the sky, i can't recall if there were any sounds from the ground/woods other than it was relatively quiet outside. Aside from it being enormous is just seemed like an object that shouldn't have been there, i'm not sure how else to explain the oddity of seeing'watching it but feeling that it wasn't supposed to be "here."

Really interesting.
Roughly what area did this happen (state or town) please?
best wishes.

 

[ProphetofOccam]

Giant birds really seem to be somewhat of a trend, here in the forums. In the least, things with wings seem to be a popular interest.

Mystery-Student, where in the country did your sighting take place?

 

[Flatwoods]

It's Mokele Mbembe for me, and all other associated "living dinosaur" tales. There was even a famous British explorer who claimed to have seen a Tyrannosaur in Africa about a hundred years ago. More recently, I've become intrigued by reports of Mammoth sightings in Russia that happened during the 20th century. There's little to no evidence for it, but the idea of living wooly mammoths really stirs the imagination.

 

[Han]

RE Mammoths:
'Woolly mammoth' spotted & filmed in Siberia | The Paracast Community Forums

 

[Mystery-Student]

Really interesting.
Roughly what area did this happen (state or town) please?
best wishes.

Giant birds really seem to be somewhat of a trend, here in the forums. In the least, things with wings seem to be a popular interest.

Mystery-Student, where in the country did your sighting take place?

the sighting occurred in Valatie/Chatham NY and the year would have been 1997

 

[Han]

the sighting occurred in Valatie/Chatham NY and the year would have been 1997

Thank you for the further information.

 

[Han]

Dear
Mystery-Student
I know from personal experience that sometimes it is possible to see animals where they are not "supposed" to be.
I think that there is a small possibility that you saw a lost or disorientated California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) Especially because of the size and colours you described:

"The color was almost all a semi dark brown with a little white near the bottoms of the wings and around the stomach."

Did it look similar to this bird?
My understanding is that there can be variation in the markings and colours so it might not have looked identical to the one in the above picture. However was the bird you saw of a similar shape?

I have done some rough calculations and I believe that it is possible that a Condor starting its journey from "Zion National Park", flying only in daylight and at half its top speed would be able to reach Valatie, NY in about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks.

 

[Mystery-Student]

the shape is correct, a little too much spacing between the primary wing feathers. The condor appears to be a "broad-wing" just as the bird I saw was. The three biggest differences I'd point to are 1. that the head and tail appeared to much larger in comparison to the body than the ratio shown in the picture of the condor 2. the head was feathered and 3. the color was definitely a brown, not a black.
though as you say coloration may vary between individuals.
when I 'recall' the incident in my minds eye now 17 years later, I do worry about the possibility that over the years my experiences and work with birds of all sorts could have subconsciously changed small aspects of how I remember the sighting. I'm not sure how to explain it, but the way someone recalls, lets say the first time a leopard crosses their path in the wild. then over the years as they visit the zoo or see other leopards in captivity, unbeknownst to the individual, their minds eye 'colors in' certain details about the original leopard that may not have actually been there. I hope this makes sense.
last week, during the holidays, i asked both my mother and my aunt if they remembered me telling them to come look at a huge bird when I was younger and they both said yes, because apparently I had made a fuss about it and them not believing me as to how big I described it.

 

[Han]

I have looked for some more examples:
this Condor is brown however its head is clearly not feathered:

this one is also brown, but the head is of a similar hue to the rest of the body:

the next picture is of a baby condor, and it seems to have some feathers on its head:

here is a brown condor flying towards the photographer:

 

[Han]

Regarding the size: my understanding is that they can have a wingspan of nearly ten feet, which on paper does not seem huge, but the tallest man ever recorded was only about 9 feet tall meaning that his arm span would be roughly 9 feet.

 

[Han]

Another possibility is that you may have seen a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)

although not as large as a Condor, it can have a wing span of around 6 feet (about the size of door) the reason I mention this is because whilst reading about them I saw this sentence:

"In flight, it uses thermals to move through the air, flapping its wings infrequently."*

which is similar to the way you describe its movements, another reason is that they are known to be present in the New York area (during summer)**

*((Source))Turkey Vulture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


**Yellow area is where they are found during summer, Green is where they can be all year round.

 

[Han]

Here is a size comparison chart:

 

[Han]

If I put on my Romantic (some might say Woo-Woo) Hat on, there may be a miniscule chance that you saw a "Argentavis magnificens"*
but we only know of them from fossil records, they are supposed to have died out a long time ago. However the same was true of the Coelacanth**.


When this happens it is called “Lazarus taxon” (basically a supposedly extinct animal that turns out to still be alive)

Back to the "Argentavis magnificens" take a look at the accepted estimates of its size:

• Wingspan: approximately 7 m (23 ft)[6]
• Wing area: 8.11 m² (87.3 ft²)[6]
• Wing loading: 84.6 N/m²[6]
• Body Length: 1.26 m (4.1 ft)[6]
• Height: 1.7–2 m (5.6–6.6 ft)[citation needed]
• Mass: 70–78 kg (154–171.6 lb)[6][7]
  
  
  

at 23 feet the wingspan is more than double that of the largest known North American Bird the California Condor, and what really makes my imagination race is that it was (or is) a close relative of the Condors, and would of (has) similar behaviours. It also would (does) look similar in shape and colour.


*Argentavis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**Coelacanth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Mystery-Student]

Another possibility is that you may have seen a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)

although not as large as a Condor, it can have a wing span of around 6 feet (about the size of door) the reason I mention this is because whilst reading about them I saw this sentence:
"In flight, it uses thermals to move through the air, flapping its wings infrequently."*

which is similar to the way you describe its movements, another reason is that they are known to be present in the New York area (during summer)**

*((Source))Turkey Vulture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


**Yellow area is where they are found during summer, Green is where they can be all year round.

I know it wasn't a turkey vulture, I'm very familiar with them. the turkey vulture is far too small and darkly colored, the wingspan of a large turkey vulture wouldn't even cover one wing of the bird I saw.

 

[Mystery-Student]

I've been doing some reading on both californian and andean condors size and wingspan. from everything i've read and seen about the condors, they just seem way too small to be the bird I witnessed. even with the fuzzy large feathers around the head of some condors, nothing seems to match, except for the fact that the bird I saw and the condor were both of the broad-winged category. for a reference of size

the size of the bird i saw would be more closely to theses sketches or an agentavis magnificens. It was huge and it just seemed so out of place.