I wanted to document this somewhere, and this seems like the place!
In Feb 2023, I was at our place in Blanco County. We have a very large 30+ acre field, partially planted in wheat and oats the previous October.
I had some trail cams around the field and noticed some coyotes coming and going on the trail cams. So I went out at night with my thermal-scoped suppressed AR and a Foxpro electronic call to try to get some.
After maybe ten minutes of calling, and no coyotes, I noticed some hogs in the thermal scope a few hundred yards away in the field. I walked toward them with the tripod-mounted rifle. At about 100 yards, I started shooting. I knew I hit at least one, but they scattered, and some were coming toward me. I got a bit disoriented, alone in the dark, looking through the scope, unsure where they all were. I did not see any down. I walked around and looked a bit. But I didn't want to go beyond the field and look into the bushes in the dark with an unwieldy rifle, given the potential of a wounded boar. I was alone in the dark, miles from the nearest people.
I scanned back toward the truck on the thermal to make sure I wasn't likely to run across any hogs. And then I started walking back across the field towards the truck in the dark.
Then I saw something very strange!
Something glowing was flying along the treetops at the north edge of the field. I'd guess it was 80 yards away. It looked and moved like a big glowing bird. I asked myself, "A lightning bug? Drone? Plane? Satellite? Aliens? Could it be any of those?"
No. This definitely looked like a large bird with the underside chest and/or wings glowing.
I thought of 2 possibilities:
1. Perhaps it was a vulture that was scavenging after a party somewhere and got tangled with a glowstick.
2. Perhaps it was a bird that somehow got some kind of bioluminescent plant or fungus rubbed on it.
I did not think much about it until recently, with all of the crazy UFO news.
Upon research, I discovered that there have been reports of bioluminescent barn owls for a long time. This is definitely consistent with what I saw. And this is an area where I've seen barn owls before. In fact, this is exactly where I'd expect to find barn owls, on the edge of a field, directly between separate barn structures a couple of hundred yards in each direction.
Apparently, barn owls are incredibly reflective and can stun prey by reflecting moonlight at them. Perhaps what I saw was a reflection of the moon - a known phenomenon with barn owls? However, I remember it being a dark night.
A bioluminescent owl strikes me as a perfect description of what I saw.
Here is a good link exploring this alleged phenomenon:
Bioluminscent Barn Owls?
Some suspect that this could be possible if owls are nesting in trees with bioluminescent fungus. But others suggest that they might actually be capable of glowing.
Apparently, they also exhibit strange glowing colors under black lights.
Recently, I've read that this is a proposed solution to the Marfa Lights (as well as other mysterious lights.) Most sightings of Marfa Lights are just headlights. But the strange claims involve "dancing" lights that appear intelligent.
Who knows?
In any case, I wish I had recorded the date, time, etc. And then I just remembered! I saw vultures on a trail cam the day after and then found a dead boar as a result.
So I checked that trail cam and first saw the vultures the morning of Feb 20. 2023. And then I remembered, I should have captured my truck driving onto the field on other trailcams.
Sure enough, I captured my truck on 3:
Feb 19, 2023:
Entered field at 6:55 PM. 58 degrees, 56 degrees, 56 degrees.
Exited field at 8:07 PM. 54 degrees, 48 degrees, 48 degrees.
This suggests that the sighting was probably around 7:50 PM on 2/19/23 with a temp of 50 degrees. Light wind of 4 mph from the WNW. It would have been flying into the wind.
The moon that night was a waning crescent, making it extremely unlikely that what I saw was a barn owl reflecting the moon. It was dark as I remembered, but not so dark that I couldn't distinguish the treeline. There were no other lights that could explain it as a reflection.
Anyone else ever see something like this?
In Feb 2023, I was at our place in Blanco County. We have a very large 30+ acre field, partially planted in wheat and oats the previous October.
I had some trail cams around the field and noticed some coyotes coming and going on the trail cams. So I went out at night with my thermal-scoped suppressed AR and a Foxpro electronic call to try to get some.
After maybe ten minutes of calling, and no coyotes, I noticed some hogs in the thermal scope a few hundred yards away in the field. I walked toward them with the tripod-mounted rifle. At about 100 yards, I started shooting. I knew I hit at least one, but they scattered, and some were coming toward me. I got a bit disoriented, alone in the dark, looking through the scope, unsure where they all were. I did not see any down. I walked around and looked a bit. But I didn't want to go beyond the field and look into the bushes in the dark with an unwieldy rifle, given the potential of a wounded boar. I was alone in the dark, miles from the nearest people.
I scanned back toward the truck on the thermal to make sure I wasn't likely to run across any hogs. And then I started walking back across the field towards the truck in the dark.
Then I saw something very strange!
Something glowing was flying along the treetops at the north edge of the field. I'd guess it was 80 yards away. It looked and moved like a big glowing bird. I asked myself, "A lightning bug? Drone? Plane? Satellite? Aliens? Could it be any of those?"
No. This definitely looked like a large bird with the underside chest and/or wings glowing.
I thought of 2 possibilities:
1. Perhaps it was a vulture that was scavenging after a party somewhere and got tangled with a glowstick.
2. Perhaps it was a bird that somehow got some kind of bioluminescent plant or fungus rubbed on it.
I did not think much about it until recently, with all of the crazy UFO news.
Upon research, I discovered that there have been reports of bioluminescent barn owls for a long time. This is definitely consistent with what I saw. And this is an area where I've seen barn owls before. In fact, this is exactly where I'd expect to find barn owls, on the edge of a field, directly between separate barn structures a couple of hundred yards in each direction.
Apparently, barn owls are incredibly reflective and can stun prey by reflecting moonlight at them. Perhaps what I saw was a reflection of the moon - a known phenomenon with barn owls? However, I remember it being a dark night.
A bioluminescent owl strikes me as a perfect description of what I saw.
Here is a good link exploring this alleged phenomenon:
Bioluminscent Barn Owls?
Some suspect that this could be possible if owls are nesting in trees with bioluminescent fungus. But others suggest that they might actually be capable of glowing.
Apparently, they also exhibit strange glowing colors under black lights.
Recently, I've read that this is a proposed solution to the Marfa Lights (as well as other mysterious lights.) Most sightings of Marfa Lights are just headlights. But the strange claims involve "dancing" lights that appear intelligent.
Who knows?
In any case, I wish I had recorded the date, time, etc. And then I just remembered! I saw vultures on a trail cam the day after and then found a dead boar as a result.
So I checked that trail cam and first saw the vultures the morning of Feb 20. 2023. And then I remembered, I should have captured my truck driving onto the field on other trailcams.
Sure enough, I captured my truck on 3:
Feb 19, 2023:
Entered field at 6:55 PM. 58 degrees, 56 degrees, 56 degrees.
Exited field at 8:07 PM. 54 degrees, 48 degrees, 48 degrees.
This suggests that the sighting was probably around 7:50 PM on 2/19/23 with a temp of 50 degrees. Light wind of 4 mph from the WNW. It would have been flying into the wind.
The moon that night was a waning crescent, making it extremely unlikely that what I saw was a barn owl reflecting the moon. It was dark as I remembered, but not so dark that I couldn't distinguish the treeline. There were no other lights that could explain it as a reflection.
Anyone else ever see something like this?
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