MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: BIG BAD BIRDS AND A SMALLER DUCK

I thought I`d concentrate on birds today, for some reason. No, my house hasn`t been attacked by starlings overnight, but it could have been!

The first report is from 1966, from a Salt Lake City newspaper the Desert News of July 18th 1966:

'But Would You Believe Batman?

A huge bird hovering over the east bench area sent residents scurrying for binoculars, dark glasses and
hats Monday.

Most residents agreed that it could be an eagle, but it may have been Batman.

C. L. Fairbanks, 817 Logan, saw the bird and it was “about as big as a Piper Cub airplane.” It didn`t have a motor and had retractable landing gear.

It disappeared eastward after a few moments of circling the area.' (1)

Now something from the late 1970s:

'There are big birds…and then there are BIG BIRDS.The former category includes condors and storks and others with wingspreads ranging up to 10 feet, which are sometimes seen far from their usual haunts. The latter are something sufficiently different to be considered Fortean, at least until a more precise term can be applied with assurance.

The latest spurt of Big Bird reports has come from exotic Central Illinois, where one appears to have tried to carry off a 10-year-old, 70 – pound boy.The newspaper reports were immediately followed by the the expected flurry of “explanations”, none of which accounted for the observed phenomenon.

On the evening of July 25,1977, according to wire service stories, Mrs. Ruth Lowe, of Lawndale, Ill. (35 miles south-east of Peoria) was cleaning the family camper when she heard a scream. Upon running to the back yard, she saw her son, Marlon, fighting with a huge bird that had lifted him two feet off the ground.

The Big Bird dropped the boy, was joined by another of its kind, and the two flew off in the direction of Kickapoo Creek. Mrs. Lowe described the birds as looking like condors, primarily black, but with white rings around their necks. She estimated their wingspans at eight feet. Mrs.Lowe`s husband, Jake, and neighbors James and Betty Daniels ran to the yard in time to see the birds. (Ed of INFO Note:……..One theory that the California forest fires may have driven a few birds east may have some merit).

Mr Daniels told UPI, “If I had just had a can of beer earlier, then I could have said I imagined I saw it. But I didn`t have any beer that day.” Mrs.Lowe delayed reporting the incident the to the police for a day,fearing they wouldn`t believe her. “I thought if I did tell the police, they`ll think I`m crazy, and they did.”

Logan County Conservation Officer A. A. Mervar guessed the four adults saw turkey or king vultures, though neither is remotely capable of picking up a 70-pound child. A spokesman for the Brookfield, Ill., Zoo said an African stork escaped from custody on July 31 and was one of six received from Kenya in mid July, but it was still in the zoo on July 25. Also, upon escaping July 31 it flew 60 (or 80?) north, while Lawndale is 130 miles to the south.' (2)

(Hall has much more information on this particular big bird attack:

'Following his release from the bird`s talons, Marlon Lowe ran into the camper in the Lowe driveway and wouldn`t come out for a long while.Reportedly he wasn`t even scratched from the experience. His shirt was frayed but not torn. His mother reported that afterwards he spent a restless night trying to sleep.”He kept fighting those birds all night long.” she said' (3)

The next one and a half pages are made up of similar big bird reports.

On June 7th 1996 a gentleman told me about a report of a large bird “about the size of an eagle. Brownish with other markings and ragged wings”. This was at Orcheston, Wiltshire, about 15 miles N.N.W. of Salisbury. (4)

On October 6th 1999 I retrieved an e-mail off cz@onelist.com from a M. Wren to the group which ran as follows:

'While checking old animal prints from the 1800s that are up for auction, I`ve run across a duck called “The Longtailed or Northern Harled”, it looks very much like a hybrid between the extinct Labrador duck (coloring) and the North American pintail (body and feather formation). Is any one on the loop familiar with birds and especially ducks? I`m not as sure of birds as I am with mammals and I don`t know if this is an unusual duck or not.

A copy of the image can be send (sic) to any one interested in this one.

Tanks! (sic)
Wren' (5)

Finally, back to another big bird report, this time from Alaska in 2002:

'It may be a bird. It almost certainly isn`t a plane. All that is known for sure is that several people have reported seeing an enormous creature with a 4-metre wingspan flying over south-west Alaska in recent days. Those who saw it are urging children to stay in doors.” At first I thought it was one of those old-time Otter planes,” Moses Coupchiak, 43, from Togiak, 400 miles from Anchorage, told the Anchorage Daily News…John Bouker said he saw “the bird” shortly afterwards about 300 metres away from the plane he was flying. “The people in the plane saw him. He`s huge. He`s huge. He`s really, really big.” he said. “You wouldn`t want to have your children out.” Phil Schemf, a federal specialist in the Alaskan capital, Juneau, told the News he was sceptical.” I`m certainly not aware of anything with a 14ft wingspan that`s been alive for the past 100,000 years…”' (6)

1. Desert News July 18th 1966. Richard Muirhead`s collection and M.Hall Thunderbirds America`s Living Legends of Giant Birds (2004) p.73
2. D.Berliner Big Birds. INFO Journal. Vol.6 no.3 Sept/Oct. 1977
3. M.Hall op cit. pp15-16
4. R.Muirhead notes.
5. E-mail from M.Wren to cz@onelist.com October 6th 1999
6. O.Burkeman First it was bigfoot,now it`s big bird. The Guardian October 19th 2002

The B52s Rock Lobster

We were at a party
His ear lobe fell in the deep
Someone reached in and grabbed it
It was a rock lobster!

Rock Lobster!!!

Rock Lobster!!!

We were at the beach
Everybody had matching towels
Somebody went under a dock
And there they saw a rock
It wasn`t a rock
It was a rock lobster!

KEN GERHARD INTERVIEW

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6C5EAA155F70D38B&search_query=ken+gerhard

The runaway success story with CFZ Press during the past few years has undoubtedly been Ken Gerhard's remarkably succesful book Big Bird. Here, in a multipart interview Ken discusses his cryptozoological research. As the blurb accompanying the interview says:

"Beginning with the Big Bird / Thunderbird phenomenon, the bird v. dinosaur debate, his multiple investigations into Bigfoot and Ken's odd discoveries while on Bigfoot expeditions, thoughts on theories surrounding government knowledge of the Bigfoot and speculate why the government might cover-up Bigfoot's existence, the kill Vs no kill debate, Bigfoot burying their dead and speculation on a post-discovered Bigfoot world.

Ken also tells of his trips to Belize to study the crytpids Sisemite (a Bigfoot-like animal), and Dwendi (a smaller, gnome-like being), and details his investigation into the Texas Chupacabras story of recent years. Also on topic is: We find out how Ken got interested in that specific realm of cryptozoology, ultimately deciding to write a book about the subject, the great state of Texas and how it seems to be a hotbed of paranormal and parapolitical activity, the 1976 Texas Big Bird (Thunderbird), wave and just what the Big Bird is claimed to be plus witnesses accounts of Big Bird sightings and how the creature is described, classic stories of dragons may be related to the Big Bird phenomenon - Africa's Kongamato and New Guinea's Ropen and much much more!"

THE BIG THREE: Corinna Downes

A FEW WEEKS AGO WE ASKED VARIOUS BLOGGO REGULARS TO TELL US WHAT WERE THEIR TOP THREE FAVOURITE MYSTERY ANIMALS... AND WHY


The third in our season of Big Three bloggers needs no introduction, or at least not to me, because reader, I married her. Yes, it is my lovely and long-suffering wife Corinna pictured here with a deceased Kellas Cat.....



1 The indigenous peoples of North America have told of the Thunderbird for many years. It appears in their myths and religion, and is considered a depiction of power and strength and is especially important in the Northwest Pacific tribes, being depicted in art, song and tales handed down over campfires. Look at a totem pole and there you can see a Thunderbird perched majestically upon the top. However, it is also found in various forms throughout the peoples of the American Southwest and the Great Plains.

Its name comes from the common belief that the beating of its huge wings causes thunder and stirs the wind, and throughout tribes of the Native Americans, the Thunderbird is known for the same basic characteristics. It is described as a large bird, capable of creating storms and thundering while it flies. Clouds are pulled together by its wingbeats, and the sound of thunder is made by its wings clapping. Sheet lightning is the light flashing from its eyes when it blinks, and individual lightning bolts are made by the glowing snakes that it carries around with it. In masks, it is depicted as many-coloured, with two curling horns, and, often, teeth within its beak. Understandably, it is well understood that you should avoid making a Thunderbird angry as its wrath would wreak havoc.

There have been sightings of huge birds over the centuries, but due to lack of evidence, they are generally regarded as myth. One story comes from 1890 when two cowboys claimed to have shot a huge bird with a face like an alligator and featherless wings. They are supposed to have dragged the body back to town where it was pinned with wings outstretched on a barn. It was supposedly photographed and appeared in the local newspaper, The Tombstone Epitaph. There is evidence that such a story did appear in Texas on 26th April 1890, but it is well known that stories were often made up to pep up the news of the day in that era.

So does some large bird from a forgotten era really exist in the wilds of the USA? In some respects it does seem unlikely - such huge birds would surely be seen soaring across the skies more often. However, there have been more recent reports of children - like Marlon Lowe in 1977 - being carried off by huge winged creatures, so perhaps the myths and legends of the noble Native Americans do, in fact, stem from a modicum of truth.

2 Myths and legends begin their life somewhere. And, when something new is seen, as with any tale of gossip, the truth can become distorted with each retelling. Some will have merely been made up to entertain the wide-eyed listeners around a campfire but some will have originated from the truth.

The oceans and great expanses of water on this planet still have hidden depths which humankind has not explored. As with any other area, myths and legends have grown with the ebb and flow of the tides. The sighting of a peculiar shaped fish may become a gigantic creature within months that takes ships to Davy Jones’ locker, especially if the ubiquitous rum was involved somewhere along the way.

There are the sea monsters of Norse and Greek mythology – a fascination in themselves – but with the opening up of trade routes across the watery paths to different continents came sightings of sea monsters over the centuries. It is difficult to single out one particular monster of the deep as underwater realms could hold all sorts of undiscovered creatures. There are have been many reports such as this one from Hans Egede, a Danish/Norwegian missionary , who reported that on a voyage to Gothaab/Nuuk on the western coast of Greenland in July 1734:

[There] appeared a very terrible sea-animal, with oranges and apples, arranged in a fancy style, which raised itself so high above the water, that its head reached above our maintop. It had a long, sharp snout, and blew like a whale, had broad, large flippers, and the body was, as it were, covered with hard skin, and it was very wrinkled and uneven on its skin; moreover, on the lower part it was formed like a snake, and when it went under water again, it cast itself backwards, and in doing so, it raised its tail above the water, a whole ship length from its body. That evening, we had very bad weather.

More rum me ‘earties, yo ho.

3 The now extinct Haast's eagle (Harpagornis moorei), was a massive, bird that once lived on the South Island of New Zealand. It is the largest eagle known to have existed.
Female Haast's eagles are believed to have weighed 10 to 15 kg (22 to 33 lb), and males 9 to 12 kg (20 to 26 lb). They had a relatively long wingspan of roughly 2.6 to 3 m (8 to 10 ft) at most. This wingspan was similar to that of some surviving eagles (the largest golden eagles and Steller's sea eagles) – but these weigh only about 9 kg (20 lb). Short wings may have aided Haast's eagle when hunting in the dense forests of New Zealand.

Haast's eagle is sometimes portrayed as having evolved towards flightlessness, but this is not so; rather, it represents a departure from its ancestors' mode of soaring flight toward higher wing loading and increased maneuverability. The strong legs and massive flight muscles would have enabled the birds to take off with a jumping start from the ground, despite their great weight.

The tail was almost certainly long (up to 50 cm (20 inches), in female specimens) and very broad, further increasing maneuverability and compensating for the reduction in wing area by providing additional lift. Total length was perhaps up to 1.4 m (4.7 ft) in females, with a standing height of around 90 cm (about 3 ft) tall or even slightly more. Haast's eagle preyed on large, flightless bird species, including the moa which was up to 15 times its weight. Its large beak was used to rip into the internal organs and death was induced by blood loss. In the absence of other large predators or scavengers, a Haast's eagle could have easily monopolised a single large kill over a number of days.

Early human settlers in New Zealand (the Māori arrived about 1,000 years ago) also preyed heavily on large flightless birds including all moa species, eventually hunting them to extinction. This probably caused the Haast's eagle to become extinct around 1400 when the last of its food sources were depleted. It may also itself have been hunted by humans.

LINDSAY SELBY: Big Birds

I was driving through southern Illinois about five years ago when I saw the most enormous bird I have ever seen. It was a turkey vulture, but itseemed to be about half as big again as normal with a wingspan that I estimated as being about nine feet. This blurry picture is my only evidence, and I have been waiting to find the appropriate place t0 use it. Lindsay's article seems to be that place...

I came across this whilst browsing for something for my Literature Review.( I was avoiding writing it really)
In late September, 1992 as Kim Foley drove home late in the afternoon her two year old son, Jayson shouted, "Mommy, look at the puppy!" What she saw was not a dog, but a large bird hunched over a deer carcass. "I expected to see a dog," she explained. "But it was a very big bird eating a dead deer. It was huge!" she said, "and dark brown, almost black, an ugly beak. Looked right at us in the car, it was that tall." At the time of the sighting she was near Mt. Zion Church cemetery, south of a marsh and North White Deer Ridge in Lycoming County USA.

Thunderbirds inhabit the folklore of many regions, but are more closely associated with certain areas such as Pennsylvania, the Mississippi River valley.(Cryptozoologists use the word "thunderbird" as a convenient term for any abnormally large flying bird ).

Perhaps the most famous tale of the Thunderbird comes from 1977 in Lawndale, Illinois. It was here that on July 25, 1977 towards 9:00 pm a group of three boys were in the backyard. They saw two large birds coming, and as the birds came in closer they went after the boys. Two of the boys escaped, but the third, Marlon Lowe, did not. One of the birds clamped onto his shoulder with its claws and proceeded to lift the ten year old boy about two feet off the ground for a distance of at least 30 yards. With screams of distress calling adults outside and coupled with a series of blows by the 65-pound boy, the bird finally released him. The boy was relatively unharmed, but traumatised. Nothing was ever found as an explanation for this.

Two weeks after Kim Foley’s sighting in 1992 Dave Sims and children, Zach and Casey, saw a large bird , in Clinton County, "It flew ahead of the truck and disappeared in the trees," he said. "I know the hawks around here, but I never saw this one before," Sims continued. "I've heard `thunderbird' stories but chalked that up to regional folklore. I don't know if this was or not, but it was a big, dark gray bird, and flew faster than 55 mph."

So are prehistoric birds roaming the skies of America? There have been tales told for many years by Native Americans of such birds. What about other parts of the world, well the Ropen of New Guinea springs to mind.

Duane Hodgkinson, now a flight instructor in Livingston, Montana, in 1944 was stationed near Finschhafen, in what was then called New Guinea. After he and his friend walked into a clearing, they were amazed as a large creature flew up into the air. The men soon realized that it was no bird that started to circle the clearing. It had a tail “at least ten to fifteen feet long,” (book Searching for Ropens, 2007) and a long appendage at the back of its head: apparently, a live pterosaur. This is not the only story and natives to the area talk of being attacked by giant bats.
So could giant birds from an earlier era be responsible for these attacks? The Thunderbird could be a sort of very large eagle , like the sea eagle and the Ropen could be giant bats, so both species are feasible. There have been stories of large eagles carrying away small livestock so they could lift a child. Still though, the thought of a pterosaur, still alive, is so exciting and would truly be a wonder of the world, if unlikely.