An odd experience in the desert...

Hello all, I feel like I have got to a point where I can share with you an unusual event that happened to me last July. Now by no means, if I see something odd, do I automatically put it down to the unexplained, Cryptozoology etc. I consider myself a skeptical believer, in that I want to look at obvious reasons before looking to the fantastical ones.

I was in the Nevada desert in a van with 10 other people, we were on our way to Vegas to play a show. It was the early hours of the morning, and all but myself, the driver and one other person were asleep. Having never been to the desert before, I was totally awestruck by its beauty, especially on a moonlight night, it was perfect. Now I sat directly behind the driver. It was a 13 seater Dodge van (I think, I forget now). I sat there so I could keep him on his toes with conversation without waking the others up.

We were just driving along a very straight stretch of road when suddenly something huge swooped down out of the darkness right at us up the front of the van and disappeared over the top of us. I shouted 'what the **** was that?' and managed to wake the others in the process. The driver saw it to, as it made him swerve instinctively. I can honestly say it scared the poop out of me. It was very quick, so unfortunately my description is a little vague. It was brown in color, I am pretty sure of that. It filled the entire windshield for a second,as it came down into the lights and up the front of the van. I braced myself as I thought an impact would be inevitable. As I say it was quite quick, so I could'nt ascertain any features, but it was long enough for me to know that it was at least the width of the van, if not wider.

Now as I say, i'm not going to be all 'omg it was a Thunderbird' or anything, but I have to admit, I would like to try and find out what it was, and if it was some native desert animal or bird, I would like to just satisfy my curiosity. It may have scared me, but boy, what a great story it makes!

Any suggestions???

here is a pic of the van we were driving, so you can get an idea of size:



I did post this on another board I belong to, but I thought I would post it here too, to see what others thought.

Thanks!

Genus

Could it have been a Golden Eagle or Vulture? I'm not sure what birds are native to Nevada seeing as im from the UK and am only familiar with pigeons and seagulls.

I was thinking the same thing, but I was wondering if they were nocturnal flyers. One friend suggested it could be a turkey buzzard, and this was what I ascertained from Wikipedia:

'It will often fly low to the ground to pick up the scent of ethyl mercaptan...'

...which could explain the reason why it was so low. I checked out images, and I am pretty sure thats what it was, even down to the coloring.

The only thing that suprised me though is that it was at night, or does it not matter with these beasties?

'Vultures have excellent eyesight but, like many other birds, poor vision in the dark.'



[edit on 8/7/2007 by Genus_Unknown]

I'm sure they would fly a night if disturbed by maybe a predator of even your truck.

It could also have been a Burrowing Owl (Wikipedia) . They live in that area and have a wingspan of around 2 feet in width.

Do you beleive in the "mothman"?

You post an extraordinary claim of something flying over the van, which based on your description, to me resembles the mothman.

[edit on 7-8-2007 by elevatedone]

Originally posted by elevatedone
Do you beleive in the "mothman"?

You post an extraordinary claim of something flying over the van, which based on your description, to me resembles the mothman.

[edit on 7-8-2007 by elevatedone]

Have you seen the OPs Avatar?... either you missed it and unwittingly discovered what he was hoping for or you were being cunning and i spoilt it for you.. i hope not the latter.. or the former for that matter.

No offence to you Genus afterall you havent claimed to have seen the mothman!

Sounds like a classic thunderbird sighting,right down to the location.

No offense taken, Fifty

I am very interested in the mythos of the Mothman, whether I believe it was a real wierd entity, well, I really don't know either way. What I do know is that 100+ people did see something in WV back in 1966, whether it was a bird, owl, alien or otherwise.

Regardless of my personal interest in the Mothman story, there were others in the vehicle who saw the same creature. The driver swerved to avoid it (as I stated in the original post). I look back now and laugh about it, and joke about Mothy, but I know I saw something out there that night.

Now I am inclined to believe it was a Turkey Vulture, the pictures I have looked up online look very similar in color, and approximate size. Like I said, I am 99% certain it was an everyday species, but you just never know. It scared the bejesus out of me. Without having that 1% of wonder, places like this would never exist...

As I said, it makes for interesting story-telling, regardless of our winged friends origins, earthly or otherwise.

[edit on 8/7/2007 by Genus_Unknown]

Yeah, I saw the avatar, accidentally edited that part of my thread.

Interesting sighting... almost makes me wish that all cars had dash cams

[edit on 7-8-2007 by elevatedone]

I hear you!

I am sure if that was the case I would watch it and think we were totally stupid, but it would've been very cool to capture whatever it was on film.

The way it came toward us and straight at the windshield, then up and over the van was straight out of a film. Startling, but fantastic none the less.

The truth is there could be all sorts of things lurking out there in the dark that we don't know about. Reminds me of Jeepers Creepers

When i was growing up i was riding with my dad in Arizona, it was at night, we were in a volkswagen and the exact thing happened to us, except we actually hit it. it cracked our windshield. my dad stopped to check it out and when he came back he said it was the biggest Effin owl he'd ever seen and then we took off really fast.
this shocked me for two reasons, this is the only time i have ever heard my dad curse in front of me and the first and only time i've ever seen him scared.

so yes..i believe your story.

Aw, that sucks! not only because it broke the windshield, but the poor owl too!

I still wonder about it though, why would a bird (a nocturnal one at that) fly toward something loud, noisy and with bright lights? do you think with your owl encounter it was a case of it being blinded or startled? It makes me think because nocturnal birds are pretty well adapted to the dark, surely? Probably just a freak one-in-a-million collision.

Makes me laugh though, what are the chances? that whole desert, at night, and the bird/thingy finds us, on that empty vast stretch of highway.

*scratches chin thoughtfully*