Okay, the only reason I joined this site is to get my story out in the open to people who might believe me.
Here's what happened: I woke up about 6 a.m on june 2nd. I live in Lawrence Township of Indianapolis, IN. That's all I feel safe divulging for the moment.
The sun was just starting to come up and I was fixing breakfast. I let my dog outside to pee and went to use the bathroom myself. The bathroom window faces my backyard.
The lights in the bathroom were off because the sun was starting to shine through.
While I was washing my hands the sun was blocked out for a moment, like something ran in front of my window. I looked out and briefly saw something black run behind my garage.
I thought it was a person, so i went to see what it was. I ran to my backdoor and opened it. My dog was on the other side shaking. I thought the person hurt my dog so when I went outside, I grabbed a broom to take with me.
I slowly walked around the side of my garage, and that's when I saw it.
At first, I thought it was a person with something on their back. I asked "What the hell are you doing?!?" Real quick to scare and get it's attention.
The thing turned around and I came face to face with this nasty looking bird.
This thing was completely black. Like a crow. Except it was built like a vulture because of the way it stood and the way it's neck leaned forward.
And it's face looked a lot like an emu except it was all ragid and wrinkled. And it's beak was slightly curved. Then...it flew away. That's all I can say.
It's eyes were sort of a maroonish tint.
Now, I'm six foot four and I was staring this thing directly in the face.
I felt like I was staring at a human being because it kept eye contact with me. It was bird-like in many ways. It kept turning it's head like it was confused as to what it was looking at. I looked down at it's feet and saw it had feet like a bird.
I was going to hit it with the broom but didn't because I didn't really know what it was or what affect hitting it with a broom would have. So, I let the broom drop.
This scared the hell out of the bird! It opened it's wings, and there was bright red markings on the inside.
It didn't make a noise, but it did flap it's wings really hard. I could feel the wind coming from the flapping and squinted my eyes.
I opened them and this thing was in my face. It smelled awful".
Upon further questioning, Ryan revealed that he is 17 years old. His parents were on vacation at the time of the sighting. He lives in a suburban/rural area in Lawrence Township.
He believes that the giant bird was after his daschund/yorkie mix, which is a relatively small dog. He does not want to ascribe anything mystical to the creature, but said that it was "just a big, dumb bird"--although he goes on to say that he believes that it could have taken him in a fight.
Ryan continues; "This thing also had to be taller than me (6 feet four inches) because I was looking it dead in the face when it's neck was hunched forward. It did not make any noise through it's mouth. The only noise it made was from flapping its giant wings.
When this thing took off, it ran a bit, then flew away. It went up in the air at an angle and just sort of disappeared out of my view".
He estimates the wingspan of the cryptid to have been approximately 25 feet.
My story takes place in either May or June of 1996. I was newly married and my husband and I bought a brand new house out in Rialto, California. If you drive by there now, there are houses everywhere, but back in 1996 there weren't that many and there were still lots and lots of open space.
I worked in L.A. and had a two-hour drive home every night. Since our house was brand new, there were no curtains. We had so many windows, and curtains were so expensive that we could only afford to buy one room at a time.
The room I hated the most to be in at night was the kitchen because the window above the sink was huge and, of course, we had not yet purchased curtains for it yet. When you looked out, all you could see was pitch black.
I would refrain from looking outside because I was always afraid that one day I was going to look up and see some maniac's face staring at me fiendishly.
Well, that never happened, but guess what did? It must have been around 10 p.m. and I was still opening boxes, cleaning, cooking, and washing. I was walking through the kitchen into the den when some movement outside caught my eye.
The moon was bright and the neighbors had their backyard lights on, so there was good visibility. When I looked out at the movement that caught my eye (and I know this sounds weird), but I saw a big "dog" walking along the back fence.
When I say a big dog, I mean one that has a long body, like a husky or German shepherd. It was a big, long dog just walking along the fence with its head down, as if it were sniffing (just like you would see a normal dog doing at the park).
I didn't know my neighbors yet, so I figured one of them must have a table near the fence and the pooch probably just climbed up and liked to walk around up there.
I noticed this, but continued walking into the den, and then it hit me. The back fence doesn't have a rim or edge for anything to walk around on. It was wooden and stood straight up, like the typical wooden fence does.
A sudden chill came over me, so I walked back to the window and looked out at the back fence.
Only the "dog" was no longer a dog. This "thing" - whatever it was - was perched on the back fence and looking straight at me! It looked like a big buzzard.
I remember the old cartoons of Buzz Buzzard and that's what it looked like to me. I saw a long neck and a big body.
I froze when I saw it and stood there for a few seconds. I then moved a little to my left and its head moved where I moved to. So I moved a little to the right and again it followed my movements to the right.
I remember saying to myself, "If that thing flies through the window and gets in here, I'm a goner." I had no weapons and no way to fend off some nightmarish creature that looked like it was straight out of a horror film.
Then the freakiest thing happened. the "thing" had wings and opened them up like a huge kite.
My God, I nearly passed out! It spread its wings and leapt up into the sky.
I was shaking at this point and started to cry. I know what I had seen and it was no dog and it was not my imagination.
I was then afraid to go upstairs to my bedroom because there were no curtains up in our room yet. I had bought some cheap towels and hung them there until we could afford the curtains. I left all the lights on and stayed in the one and only room that did have curtains.
It was the small bedroom my step-son would be staying in, so we put curtains there first.
Where was my husband, you ask? Well he worked swing shift and didn't get home until around 1 a.m. and sometimes later.
For those of you who know the area, I lived on Via Verde Street just off the 15 freeway before you go into the mountains and out to Vegas. I forget the name of the exit, but it was the one after Baseline.
At that time, the whole Chupacabras thing was starting in Puerto Rico. I truly believe this was one of those. What else has wings, a long body like a dog, and a long neck (at least that's how some have described it that have seen it)?
A prehistoric-looking creature flies over an island in Papua New Guinea, according to psychologist Brian Hennessy.
LONG BEACH, Calif./EWORLDWIRE/June 8, 2007 --- A psychologist at a university in Central China asserts that he saw, in 1971, a prehistoric-looking creature flying in Papua New Guinea. Brian Hennessy of the Chongqing University of Medical Sciences described the creature as black or dark brown with a "longish narrow tail" and a beak that was "indistinguishable from the head."
In the daylight of an early morning on Bougainville Island, on a dirt road that led down to the coast, Hennessy heard a slow "flapping" and looked up to see a "very big" creature with a "horn" at the back of its head. There was "not a feather in sight."
After thirty-five years, in the summer of 2006, a friend of Hennessy referred him to the American, Jonathan Whitcomb, author of the book "Searching for Ropens," who interviewed him. The eyewitness account was added to the second edition of the book, which was published on May 30, 2007.
Until 2006, Hennessy had been unaware of cryptozoological expeditions related to what he had seen. (Whitcomb's book tells how, in the 1990's, a few Americans began investigating, in Papua New Guinea, creatures described like living pterosaurs, commonly called, by Americans, "pterodactyls.") Hennessy was also unaware that many natives have names for giant flying creatures: One of those names is "ropen."
The American author noticed similarities between Hennessy's description and that of a creature reported 500 miles to the west, near Finschhafen, Papua New Guinea, twenty-seven years earlier. In 1944, Duane Hodgkinson, now living in Montana, saw a giant "prehistoric" creature flying over a clearing where he and another soldier were standing.
Whitcomb had interviewed Hodgkinson in 2004 and realized, two years later, that both the American veteran and the psychologist had seen a dark flying creature with a long tail but no sign of feathers. Both men used the word "prehistoric."
In 2006, Whitcomb showed Hennessy a series of sketches for determining the shape of the head, including the beak and the head appendage. (A similar questionnaire had been given to Hodgkinson two years earlier.) Whitcomb then drew a sketch based on Hennessy's answers, and concluded that Hennessy had seen, in 1971, the same type of creature that Hodgkinson had seen in 1944.
Whitcomb's book asserts that Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs live in Papua New Guinea and that they are larger than Rhamphorhynchoid fossils. Hodgkinson is specific about the size of the creature he saw: similar to that of a "Piper Tri-Pacer airplane" (twenty-nine-foot wingspan).
GARDENERS have been warned to keep their eyes on the skies after a hungry heron helped itself to a prized collection of fish.
Bishopbriggs resident Walter Morrison was shocked to find that the contents of his pond had been wiped out within minutes by a feathered fiend.
Witnesses told Walter that a 'giant bird' had swooped down and tucked into the fish – including Koi carp, which cost around £50 each.
He told the Herald: "My daughter happened to be looking out of the kitchen window at the time and saw this giant bird beside the pond.
"She said its wingspan must have been about eight feet. My neighbour also saw it and said it was huge and looked like a pterodactyl!
"I'd bought a plastic heron for beside the pond as apparently they don't go into each other's territory, but that obviously hasn't worked.
"I'd say all the fish cost around £300 in total so, after spending that amount of money, it is heartbreaking and I just want to let other people know they should be on the look-out."
The attack took place at Mr Morrison's property in Atholl Gardens last month. Herons eat mainly fish, amphibians, small mammals, and occasionally birds.
They are solitary feeders and very patient, and will stand still for long periods stalking their prey. They can quickly empty a garden pond of fish.
I spoke recently with a witness to an Illinois giant bird. She witnessed her spectacle though in 1973, rather than the more sighting-clustered year of 1977.
“I am not crazy and I don’t go around seeing things!” insists Joni Grawe. The problem is that she did see something that to most people would be considered beyond the realms of believability.
Today Grawe, 49, is a group benefits specialist for a paralegal agency out of Illinois and a former realtor, Sunday school teacher and substitute teacher in the public school systems. In 1973 though, she was simply young woman who witnessed a mind-boggling sight.
At this time, Grawe was a typical sixteen-year-old farm girl from El Dara, Illinois in Pike County who enjoyed nature and would often hike the hills and woods of her family’s farmstead. One of these solo treks proved more terrifying than exhilarating though.
Grawe literally paused for a moment. I could not tell if the memories were overwhelming her or if she was having second thoughts on telling me her 33-year-old story. She assured me that she had never before told anyone outside of her family circle of her encounter.
“And then I saw them, there were three of them, two big ones and a little one. I say ‘little’, but there was nothing little about it! They were the biggest most frightening birds I have ever seen. The big ones were literally as big as a person standing there. Not thin like a stork, but huge—thick as a person. They looked prehistoric.
Grawe remained in the beans for several more minutes until the three creatures—with mighty, wind-creating flaps of their wings—departed via flight. Grawe ran the whole half of a mile home in shock and terror from what she wad just witnessed. She had just become the area’s first observer of a “bigclaw”, a name coined by the Pantagraph newspaper out of Bloomington, Illinois (and a clear play off the term Bigfoot) some four years later.
Just one more affidavit of the enigmatic avian sightings in Illinois…of which I will no longer attempt to speculate upon as to their origin.