LINDSAY SELBY: Strange encounter with a half man/half bird creature

Anyone who reads my stuff on this blog knows I tend to find strange stories on the internet and here is another one for you. If anyone has any information about this please post!

http://www.aliendave.com/Utah_ReportonStrangeCreature.html

Story Reported to UUFOH on July 8th 2002 via Ryan Layton - UUFOH Member - by "Fred"

I will tell you about the experience in as much detail as I can. I have been studying such things as this; from Bigfoot (which is and always will be my main interest) to Chupacabras to Mothmen and more since I was in the 4th grade. From anything cryptozoological in nature to U.F.O 's and Ghosts you name it. So naturally when my uncle told me of his experience I was a little more than intrigued. I must say first that while my uncle is not above a little exaggeration from time to time (guess it's an uncle thing) he swears that this did indeed happen and said nothing for years and actually never went into all the detail with anyone until just recently when he confided in me the whole story and I do have his permission to tell it here and I did promise to leave out his name. Anyway,

The incident took place back in the summer of 1976 in the state of Utah somewhere between the town of Panguitch and Hatch in the Dixie National forest. They were traveling north on highway 89. Sighting occurred at night at around 11:00 p. m, the skies were clear and no other vehicles were in the area at the time. The area was lightly forested but there were no trees or brush obstructing their view, no tree stumps or boulders in the area either. While driving north the headlights, which at the time were set to high beams, partially picked up what he describes as a half man/half bird creature standing in the middle of a clearing containing no visible grass. The creature itself was approximately 70' away. He describes it as being between 5' 1/2 to 6' tall. It had large eyes that did not glow or produce any color a large head and no visible neck. He describes it as having wings that were either folded or attached to or part of the arm and folded in front of itself. There were no visible feathers and he describes the skin as looking like dark or weathered human looking skin with dark or dirty spots on it. He also describes it as having a large wide body but my thought is that it could have had something to do with the wings or whatever appendages it might have had.

Other witness included the passenger who had remarked on seeing something also. The sighting only lasted about 10 seconds. The car was traveling around 50 miles per hours but when the creature was sighted my uncle took his foot off of the gas and started to brake to slow down. They continued traveling north after the sighting looking for a good place to turn around and when they returned to the location of the sighting it was already gone. During the initial sighting and during their return to that location there was no sound or smell. They never exited the vehicle because they were scared and so there were no footprints seen.

One more thing that I should include is neither witness had been drinking alcoholic beverages or taking any prescription medication at the time. If my uncle recalls anymore information about his sighting I would be more than happy to forward it to you and you may also post this story if you would like. Actually it is my hope that you do post it so that anyone else who had a similar occurrence could be motivated by this report to come forward and tell their story and maybe with enough people volunteering information we can get a better picture of what this is and maybe learn of something new. Thanks again Ryan and take care,

Fred

I have not found any other reports about this but someone out there in CFZ world may know more about it.