East of Los Angeles, Orange County is now covered with cities more than orange groves. But more rare than orange trees are the strange flying creatures that defy common explanation. Consider two cases.
Perhaps “sighting” is the wrong word, but last October I received an email from a businessman who wanted more information on living-pterosaur investigations. Here is part of his experience.
“I never considered that there could be a prehistoric creature still living today, but I had an experience about 12-years ago that has nearly changed my mind; it has at least made me consider it. . . . I was living at the time in Rancho Santa Margarita, which is a master planned community near the O’Neill Canyons and the foothills of Saddleback mountain range. . . . One night I was awakened [about 1:00 a.m.] with screeching and screaming . . . like some sort of creature was suffering, or fighting for its life in my backyard. . . . accompanied my some thrashing around in some hedges or bushes in the backyard of my [neighbors house] . . . I went to the front door and went out into the dark. . . . I then moved cautiously towards the driveway on the side of the house and waited and strained to hear again. . . . I was transfixed with fear at what I was about to see; but I didn’t ‘see’ so much as ‘felt’ it. Whatever it was swept up and onto the chimney of the next-door-neighbors house. . . . [it was dark, so] I could not really make out anything, but a large hulking ‘presence’ sat on that chimney. . . . I left the yard quickly and went inside. . . . I didn’t sleep well that night.”
University at Irvine
When I interviewed this eyewitness, it soon became apparent that his credibility was very high, although what he reported was astonishing. Flying into the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary (near the California State University at Irvine), the long-tailed creature passed just over the road. The eyewitness was thus able to estimate the length of the creature, from the beginning of the beak to the end of the tail: about thirty feet. Amazing!
The profession of this eyewitness made it obvious to me that this was no hoax. But in addition, the details of what he told me about his daylight sighting (and the way that he told me those details) established his credibility, notwithstanding the enormous size he estimated for that long-tailed flying creature. It seems that he observed a giant ropen only miles from my own home in Southern California.