Lechuza caught in Carizzo Springs Texas? fake or real?

reply to post by krossfyter


I am no photoshop expert, but if you look at the man's hand on the right. The guy in the darker uniform, his entire hand and fingers looks like it is in front of the owl's wing instead of the wing being in between the man's fingers. So I am going to go with fake.

I'm weighing in on fake.

1. The vertical lines on the aluminum sheeting of the building look like fill space.
2. The man on the right looks like his hand is in front of the wing.
3. It's the only picture on the web and the story is the same in each instance with no secondary or other pictures.

Charizzo Springs is how big of a town?
Would it be all that hard to call their police station and ask about the 2 officers pictured here which is probably a full 1/3 of their total police force?

The Charizzo Springs website has no mention of this: Charizzo Springs website

Liveleak has this showing up 3 days ago and if true, it'd of probably hit the local Charizzo Springs website news already.

It HAS made the local TV news there Local Charizzo Springs area news

All in all, if true, there'd be more to this than just one picture, and one local news broadcast.
Usually when something is found to be a fake, and it's not of any kind of huge infamy, it goes out with a whimper where it disappears to hide out and come back again a few years later.

*Fake* for many reasons listed above. Also there's cardboard tube behind the man on the right that could have been holding the possible "banner" mentioned previously as well...

reply to post by krossfyter


So last week, while here in West Texas, I was leaving work around 3am. My boss was in town, and we were hashing out our annual and 5 year budget. So we had a few late nights in a row.

As I walked out of the office, I looked across the street to where there was this amber street light. I could see the top of a taller coworkers head in silhouette. All of a sudden this bird comes swooping down. I am accustomed to the bats in the area flying at night. But it isn't often you see a bird at night without it being a full moon.

This bird was a very, very large bird. Like, the size of a bald eagle or large buzzard. Except the bird was white/light colored. It wasn't a falcon or a hawk. But I couldn't see its head. My instincts made me yell out to my coworkers, "Did you see that big ass freaking owl?!?!" Unfortunately, I was the only one who saw it.

It swooped down into the halo of the light, then back up. The entire downward arc took about 2 seconds, but you could hear its massive wings trying to get lift.

This picture looks just like what I saw. Except what I saw had wings that were only about 3/4 the size of those.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

Should have whistled

reply to post by Ear-Responsible


i was lucky to be awake. It was the second night in a row till 3am. I yelled as soon as I could, but they turned to look at me instead of the other way to the bird. But they all said they heard the wings beating, and thought it was a large canvas up the street flapping in the wind. Until I pointed out there wasn't any wind that night.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

I meant whistle at the bird. As the lechuza folk lore goes, at least the way i was told (texas, mexican heritage) is that it's a witch in the form of a bird (sometimes described as having the body of a bird/owl but the face of a witch) that goes around whistling. If you whistle back, it will come after you. As kids, whistles heard late at night were the scariest things ever lol.

reply to post by Ear-Responsible


Ahh, yeah. The lechuza was the reason i clicked on the thread to begin with. My wife was disappointed, being latina, that it was a bird and not a monster. I was disappointed that it wasn't a horrible and cheesy photoshop.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

Same, though I was impressed by the size I'm pretty sure its shopped. Still nice to see some southern urban legends getting some recognition. I hated seeing the San Antonio railroad tracks getting debunked. Now I'm waiting on some La Llorona stories here on ATS lol.

Originally posted by Grifter81
reply to post by Destinyone

 

If you look closely it may be that the bird is supported by wires and they are just holding out the wing tips. You can see a string/wire to our right which looks to be connected to the wing.

That doesn't mean the picture isn't fake however.

edit on 15/7/2012 by Grifter81 because: (no reason given)

The picture is not fake, tho i question the bird in the picture is real or not. Where are the eyes, beak, does it have it's head turned? lines in the photo suggest it is hanging by some sort of string or wire. I wonder who made this taxidermy job anyways. Because it is missing feathers on the right side and you can see where the cords attach on the birds wings. I believe that the wings have extentions on them to make them look longer. Interesting photo tho as to why they took this pic. in the first place.

Originally posted by Ear-Responsible
reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

 

Same, though I was impressed by the size I'm pretty sure its shopped. Still nice to see some southern urban legends getting some recognition. I hated seeing the San Antonio railroad tracks getting debunked. Now I'm waiting on some La Llorona stories here on ATS lol.

edit on 16-7-2012 by Ear-Responsible because: (no reason given)

Or the cucuy.

My youngest son...my wife used to tell him that when he was acting up it would bring the cucuy. He would start crying and say, "But i don't want cuy!"

Originally posted by Druscilla

I'm weighing in on fake.

1. The vertical lines on the aluminum sheeting of the building look like fill space.
2. The man on the right looks like his hand is in front of the wing.
3. It's the only picture on the web and the story is the same in each instance with no secondary or other pictures.

Charizzo Springs is how big of a town?
Would it be all that hard to call their police station and ask about the 2 officers pictured here which is probably a full 1/3 of their total police force?

The Charizzo Springs website has no mention of this: Charizzo Springs website

Liveleak has this showing up 3 days ago and if true, it'd of probably hit the local Charizzo Springs website news already.

It HAS made the local TV news there Local Charizzo Springs area news

All in all, if true, there'd be more to this than just one picture, and one local news broadcast.
Usually when something is found to be a fake, and it's not of any kind of huge infamy, it goes out with a whimper where it disappears to hide out and come back again a few years later.

for the record those are game wardens or park rangers not cops, the dudes hand could just be at an awkward angle how often does one grab a giant owl, the pic is not detailed enough to say for sure that its photoshoped because of that hand, although i dont rule out the possibilty i want to know were the carcass is now if it is real and it would be cool to hear first hand from the game wardens

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
reply to post by Ear-Responsible

 

... But they all said they heard the wings beating, and thought it was a large canvas up the street flapping in the wind. ...

Very interesting. May not have been an owl, seeing that owls are well-known for their soundless flight...

More on Owl Flight

Dare I say Mothman?

reply to post by Gemwolf


This is a pretty superstitious part of the world. If you heard me tell about some of the superstitious beliefs that my wife talks about her hispanic family having.....especially the red thread on the forehead. Or, even worse, when my in laws cured an ojo on my oldest son by putting an egg under his bed and doing something.

It is a culture that has the outward facing catholic beliefs, but holds some relics of their prior belief system before the Europeans.

Having prefaced with that....there are no legends of a mothman or anything like that. The legends around here have to do with men that have goat feet and things like that.

Originally posted by DocHolidaze

Originally posted by Destinyone
reply to post by krossfyter

 

Fake...they wouldn't be able to hold up an owl that large with their fingertips. Plus the weight of the bird body wouldn't allow it to be spread out like that.....fake fake fake....

Des

bones of birds are designed specifically so they are light and can fly, so it is not as heavy as it looks.

Bird bones are porous yes, but a bird of that sized is still going to weigh quite a bit, and absolutely more than the weight they are supposed to be holding by their fingertips.

Imagine walking into your barn, looking up, and looking into a 2,5 meter barn owl... "HOOOOT!!!!"
It must be feeding off small piglets, and be invisible until it was shot...

Looks fake. When you zoom and magnify, the outline just doesn't match the rest. The men's hands are just not in the right position to hold something like that. The man on the right has his fingers pinched, that bird would be much too heavy to hold that way.

Originally posted by Druscilla

I'm weighing in on fake.

1. The vertical lines on the aluminum sheeting of the building look like fill space.

Indeed. You can even clearly see the seam, where the photoshoped lines abut on the real ones.
If you draw a vertical line at this spot, you will also see that the floor changes colour along this vertical line.

Originally posted by krossfyter

Originally posted by Destinyone
reply to post by krossfyter

 

Fake...they wouldn't be able to hold up an owl that large with their fingertips. Plus the weight of the bird body wouldn't allow it to be spread out like that.....fake fake fake....

Des

largest owl is the great grey owl? this is way bigger than that.


those out there familar with pointing out bad photoshop jobs please respond to this photo. thnx.

edit on 15-7-2012 by krossfyter because: (no reason given)

It is certainly a bad photoshop job; you can tell by the many things that are wrong in the picture but also by the fact that the animal is obviously a scaled up Barn Owl and not a different-looking bird; if this was a new, unknown species of owl one would expect it to look at least slightly different, especially because, if you were to take a barn owl and "evolve it" to be that large, its proportions would definitely change.
So it is a fake, and not even a well thought one.


Oh and the great grey owl is NOT the largest owl. It only looks so large because it has such a thick feathercoat (to protect it from the cold). The largest owl in the world is either the Eurasian Eagle Owl:

www.trueblood-news.com...

Or the Blakiston's Fish Owl from Japan and Siberia:

fwcb.cfans.umn.edu...

As for North America, the largest owl would be the Great Horned Owl; the Great Grey is longer, but the Great Horned is heavier and more massive overall.


(PS- Rumor has it that fossilized bones of VERY large barn owls have been found in several islands around the world, but like I said, they had different proportions and it is even possible that they didn´t fly much).

thank u all for your contributions to this thread. really appreciate it.