Tag: Virginia

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Pterosaur Sightings in Virginia

I recently received a detailed eyewitness report of a sighting in Virginia in 1999 (labeled “TV-12”). We’ve covered many sightings in these posts, some from various states in the U.S.A., including Washington state, Ohio, Texas, and California, but apparently Virginia had been left out. Let’s begin with older contacts.

In 2007, a lady sent me an email about what her father had seen near their home in Richmond, Virginia:

My father has been the subject of much ridicule after claiming to have seen a “dinosaur bird” fly across the moon.  His neighbor has a telescope and they’d been watching the sky when they saw it.  My sister and I dismissed it, although I couldn’t think of anything he could have seen and mistook for a “dinosaur bird.” [The lady’s father then searched online and learned about the ropen.] I went on online, and to my surprise, Dad wasn’t making it up.  I just wanted to go on record as saying that they’ve been sighted . . . here in Richmond.

1999 Sighting (This sighting is labeled “TV-12”)

“I have no plans to be held in ridicule by my family, friends or the general population for that matter.  I would REALLY like a logical explanation for what I saw . . . it was certainly not in my imagination, as there were two of us who saw, felt and heard something that night.

“I went swimming with a friend at a local reservoir [in the middle of a summer’s night] . . . I was making some splashing I remember, rather loudly . . . [The flying creature] seemed like it crossed a great distance with only a few flaps of its wings and mostly glided but it came very fast.”

[It came within about twenty feet of the eyewitness as it hovered in the air, about fifteen to twenty feet high. She was terrified.]

“We just kind of had a ‘WHAT was that?’ moment, and then headed out of there and never went back.  Incidentally, I had never witnessed anything out there like that before or since..nothing paranormal, no bigfoots…etc, nothing.  So I eventually felt comfortable ruling out going crazy after a passage of a couple of years and no further possible hallucinations or any of the like.  Also, I have never even tried illegal drugs and was not on any medication at the time, so obviously that explanation was ruled out….plus there was the other witness.”

2012 Sighting

I have recently [had] two sightings. One a couple of weeks ago, by myself I saw two flying. Then this Sunday, in about the same place, my daughter and I saw one fairly close up, flying in the opposite direction. These were all seen while traveling on a highway.

The most obvious feature was the diamond or spade tipped tail; I have not found any creature that compares. My first sighting was far enough away that I couldn’t rule out man made gliders, imitation, but the last sighting moved in such away that it was highly unlikely to be fake.

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Virginia Pterosaurs (TV-12 sighting)

It came from the direction of the moon . . . all I saw was its silhouette.  I could see it was big even before it was close . . .

How big do Pterosaurs get?

As of December, 2012, seventy-four eyewitness estimates have been given for sighting that stretch back for many years. Half of those (37) are wingspan estimates from four to thirteen feet inclusive, which is the size of medium-big to big birds. . . . Nevertheless, the giant pterosaurs are not to be dismissed lightly: 31% (23 reports) included wingspan estimates of twenty feet or larger, a significant minority.

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Pterosaur Observed in Pennsylvania

Before examing this report of a sighting in Pennsylvania, let’s consider eyewitness sightings in this part of the United States, around Pennsylvania. Last September, I wrote a little about a pterosaur sighting in Ohio. To recap:

Ohio Pterosaur

The creature was red with smooth leathery skin. It had no feathers. The man said that the wings were “extremely long.” . . . Some kind of protrusion or “knob” was on the top of the head [sounds like a head crest]. The wingspan was “at least 20 feet or better.”

New York State Pterosaur

On page 39 of the second edition of my book Live Pterosaurs in America, a referred to an eyewitness report of a “pterodactyl” observed east of Buffalo, New York:

. . . my friend and I were canoeing in the creek accessed from my back yard, when we sighted a very strange creature that we had both thought to be a prehistoric bird. Immediately, I thought ‘pterodactyl.’ It was a greyish color with no apparent feathers.

 Richmond, Virginia, Pterosaur

From page 31 of that book, a lady described her father’s experience in Richmond, Virginia, some years ago:

“My father has been the subject of much ridicule after claiming to have seen a “dinosaur bird” fly across the moon. His neighbor has a telescope and they’d been watching the sky when they saw it. . . . My father later told me that he’d done some research and learned that they were called “ropen.” I went online, and to my surprise, Dad wasn’t making it up. I just wanted to go on record . . . they’ve been sighted from here in Richmond.”

Pennsylvania Pterosaur Sighting

From the Live Pterosaur blog (posted March 9, 2011):

In the summer of 2006, at about 8:00 p.m., . . . in southwest Greensburg, Pennsylvaniva, a karate teacher and two of his students were talking outside. Above some small trees . . . they saw something that at first could have been mistaken for a large bird. . . . [The karate teacher said:] it caught my eye. Being that far up the “birds” body still appeared to be much larger than my 100 pound dog . . . The wingspan appeared to be at least six feet and although it was a bit away from us you could clearly make out a long “horn” or “cone” type protrusion coming out of the back of its skull . . . [The head] was at the end of an elongated neck.

. . . the proportions of the creature’s long tail [were compared with] the proportions of a rat’s tail: thicker compared with its length. The creature “appeared to be jet black with some dull brown in certain spots.”

We could here it splashing around, and Carrie ran around the building to see it. There are always ducks in that water as well as rats and other things. When she came back . . . she said it had taken off, Carrie said it was in the water splashing and eating or grabbing something in its mouth.

I began with brief references to sightings in states near Pennsylvania, for we need to realize there is nothing unique about this state, or its residents, that causes appearances of living pterosaurs. It seems that these flying creatures, however rare or reclusive they may be, live (for at least part of the year) in the central area of North America.