Impossibly large bird spotted in Mendenhall Valley

I live in a weird state.

Alaska.

There are all kinds of strange things here. Legends and whispers of unknown creatures, things that swim in the deep,
hide in the forest or soar above it.

I'm always hearing about something strange.
This story came across my news feed and I thought it might be share worthy.
This is from the Juneau Empire.
The initial eyewitness account was on January 16th.

According to several eyewitness reports, a bird with a wingspan nearly the width of Mendenhall Loop Road has been spotted in the Mendenhall Valley.

The cryptozoological curiosity stems from a post in the popular Facebook page “Juneau Community Collective,” brought to the attention of the Empire by several readers. The Empire couldn’t track down a clear explanation of what the bird was, but we did talk to some bird experts and did a little digging on similar sightings from around Alaska.

“I looked up and right at that point, there was a gigantic, huge black bird flying right above my truck. It was basically following the roadway along the treetops.

“I slowed down to try to get a better look at it. It was heading toward the glacier, the wingspan was almost as wide as the road,” Bauer said, adding, “It was the biggest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It was very concerning. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

And another eye witness to something similar a few years earlier:

“All you heard was the whooshing sound in my tree.
I went inside and grabbed a flashlight.
It was so large, I couldn’t even get an outline of what type of bird it was,” Diane said.

Diane noticed downed branches littered her yard in the morning. “That sounds crazy, but it was huge,” she said.

“I don’t even go camping anymore.”

The article goes on to explain that it could of been several things, but no one knows for sure other than the wingspan was almost as wide as the road. It is worth a read and a well respected news source.

juneauempire.com...

I'm keeping my eyes to sky up here as this is only a hundred or so miles away from me.

a reply to: Darkblade71

weather balloon

case closed

a reply to: FamCore

Haha!

That made me spit out my coffee!

a reply to: Darkblade71

Is the Illuminati card atomic monster being played? What if it's mutated by radiation a la Godzilla?

a reply to: Darkblade71

His eyes played tricks on him.

2nd story looks made up. Picture a bird in a tree with branches snapping under its feet. So big the twigs are breaking up by its head and wings. Big birds land on big branches it's not a cartoon.

Not too long ago there was an "Expedition Unknown" episode concening this (I sometimes find hokey TV that I would never consider credible evidence entertaining. Sue me).

Makes you wonder about the Thunderbird legends.

a reply to: RadioRobert

I'll have to see if I can find that episode,
it sounds interesting.

That was no bird.

It was my Ex g/f testing her Wing Span on the way to work. That Spawn of Satan is a legislative aid/chief of staff for someone there. It scared me when I first heard them too.

Not too long ago something clipped the back end of my car. First off figured it was the common culprit, a deer. All I could spot in the mirror was a huge wing- and it's shadow-,flying off into the forest.

Returned but did not spot any injured animal, nor seen any indication of one the next day.Luckily seemed to be a light clipping(wing?)and the car had no discernible damage.

Albiet, there are huge owls around. Many take into consideration of the stories of cyptids when on these roads.

pics or it wasn't shopped



There used to be huge birds the larger the land mass the larger the animals like lions being from large continents and cats from islands it's a neat thing about evolving to fit the habitat.

Sounds smaller than a CA condor though Bald Eagles are surprisingly large if you've never seen a full size one of those in person one at a New Mexico zoo was close to 5 feet in just the body It was shocking... neat how they can either choose to die or shed their beak and talons living kinda helpless til they grow back and then live for another 20 plus years.

a reply to: dreamingawake

Imagine finding a feather from such a bird if it was one!

That would be awesome!

Someone would probably take it away from you though.
I can just see a game warden being all gruff and taking it away and charging you with some unknown fine for an unknown bird.

a reply to: BEBOG
I once had a extremely close encounter with a bald eagle.
It grabbed a fish I was in the middle of reeling in and landed on the dock right next to me where we got into a tug of war for the fish. I was more worried I hooked him until he landed. He didn't have the hook in him so I started to try to pull my line and fish away, and he tried to take it back.

He was huge!
The wing span was as wide as the dock and he stood almost 3 feet tall.
Kind of scared me but that was my first dolly varden I had caught in 25 years.
I wasn't about to let it go once I saw he hadn't been hooked.
It was a personal matter, I wanted that fish and so did the eagle.

Anyways, long story short, he got mad, gutted the fish, took the guts and flew off onto a small island across from me with one pine tree on it. he sat there and squawked at me for almost an hour after.

Big birds, but anyone who lives here knows what an eagle is, or at least they should as there are more eagles than seagulls some days.

I saw a huge bird flying about a hundred feet away one day, it was like a huge crane with a head that was strange looking. There was a crow and a baby eagle flying with it, the eagle did not get it's adult feathers yet. Well, I ran into the house to look up this bird, it is a big crane like bird that migrates usually up the coast up by New York area, it isn't supposed to be up here. It must have had a ten foot wingspan, maybe even wider.

I saw some Canadian geese one day and the whole bunch had wingspans about eight to ten feet wide, they were bigger than snowgeese. I think with the ice melting it is uncovering some prehistoric growth hormone chemistry and it may be effecting the size of the geese that fly far north, possibly buried in the thawing permafrost. Who knows why the dinosaurs were so large, maybe plants made them grow faster, being tied to some weird epigenetic factors. Maybe those plants with the growth hormone are starting to sprout. Seeds can last for a very very long time if buried in clay. Stuff is popping up in the area being bared by the glacier, no seeds are blowing there.

Hopefully they will never discover this plant, they will create giants to dominate us, you all know that there are people who would weaponize something like that.

a reply to: Darkblade71

sounds like everyone was having a fun time; they are known to carry off small and medium sized dogs too.

a reply to: Darkblade71

A big bird?

But was it as big as a battleship?



Terrible B-movies aside it's very easy to exaggerate the size of a bird's wingspan and memory has a funny way of playing with the details of things. Not saying it wasn't a very large bird. It's also not impossible for the wingspan to be almost the size of the road (depending on how big the road was). It doesn't say how many lanes the road was but if it was a single lane road it's not outside the realm of possibility for numerous birds native to Alaska to have a wingspan that big.

Golden Eagles, Sandhill Cranes, Albatross, all can have wingspans of 7 feet and if we're dealing with a peculiarly large specimen it could well exceed that.

I posted this (which is all I can find right now) on another thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Great story about a huge, grey, bird swooped down and took some road-kill!!

a reply to: Darkblade71

That particular segment was actually pretty boring. Haha. They did have an expert suggest a large species of eagle from Japan may be present in the area. Bald eagles were like pigeons and everywhere when I have been in Alaska, so I sort of doubt that they are misidentify a slightly larger eagle, but what do I know?

So how wide is this particular road? There are BIg birds around.

Spreading Their Wings to Longest on Record. The wandering albatross has the largest known wingspan of any living bird, at times reaching nearly 12 feet.

More big ones
www.listverse.info...

A friend and I saw an owl sitting in a tree that must have been near 3 foot tall.
It never spread it's wings, but it must have had a huge span.
As far as I've researched they aren't known to get that big, but apparently they do.
This was at Brazos Bend State Park in southern Texas.
That thing could have easily snatched a small/medium sized dog.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

The California condor is the largest bird in North America with a wing span of about 10 feet.

Jaden