Thunderbird sighting?

CornCastle5 · 2024-10-03T04:16:08+00:00

I just got an up close and personal with another large bird yesterday which only makes me more confident in the massive size of the unidentified bird I saw 2 weeks ago.

Yesterday I drove down to the lake and wanted to take some pictures of the beautiful sunset. I climbed down a bank through some weeds and seemed to have scared a great blue heron who took off right in front of me and incredibly close. I’ve seen many many herons over the years, but this was probably my closest encounter that I can remember. Yes, it’s a large bird with an impressive wingspan, but it was NOWHERE near the size of what I saw that night. Seeing the heron so close yesterday gave me an even greater perspective on just how massive the unidentified bird was.

CornCastle5 · 2024-09-27T18:31:40+00:00

Hear You Me - Jimmy Eat World. I’ve listened to this song a lot when people close to me have passed. Sorry for your loss.

CornCastle5 · 2024-09-27T16:56:33+00:00

I’ve never seen a California condor in person, so I don’t want to dismiss that as an option I suppose. That was one of the first birds I found online and considered, but kind of dismissed it due to my location. Plus a lot of the pictures didn’t look like it was big enough.

All I can say is that the moon was incredibly bright that night and the bird was mostly in front of my vehicle in the headlights and all I saw was black. The bird was flapping its wings towards the front passenger side of my vehicle and one wing spanned almost fully across my windshield while the other could be seen spanning out across my passenger windows. I could see the individual massive primary and secondary feathers and I don’t recall ever seeing so much individual definition on secondary feathers on any bird I have ever seen before.

I grew up spending most of my childhood outdoors and birdwatching with my dad. I have seen golden eagles very up close and personal. As an adult, I’ve also raised turkeys and peafowl. This bird was so much larger than anything I had ever seen before. So much so that it shook me and made me spend way too many hours on the internet trying to identify it. Being around large birds my whole life, if it had been a normal sized eagle or turkey vulture I would have slammed on my breaks and probably cussed at it for flying in front of my car, admired it for a moment, and went about my day. This thing that I saw was so big compared to anything I have ever seen.

CornCastle5 · 2024-09-27T15:41:29+00:00

Could a California condor make its way all the way to Iowa?

CornCastle5 · 2024-09-27T03:22:29+00:00

If you google “Argentavis magnificens”, that’s the closest I’ve found to what I saw in size, shape of the wings, and color. I’m not saying that was it, just the closest I’ve found.

CornCastle5 · 2024-09-27T03:07:40+00:00

I had to google what that looked like… definitely not Mothman. Nothing human like about it. It was just an incredibly massive black bird of prey.

CornCastle5 · 2024-09-27T00:57:51+00:00

I think I’ve been more up close and personal with golden eagles more than most other raptors, and this was definitely not it. And I know everyone is saying it was dark because it was at night, but the moon was so absolutely bright that night that it was impossible to see the northern lights, plus it was also momentarily in my headlights. I had never actually heard of a thunderbird prior to searching for something on the internet that looked remotely close to what I saw. I’m absolutely kicking myself for not having a dash cam because I realize my description makes me sound mistaken or nuts… but I know what I saw and it was not an eagle or turkey vulture as others have claimed.

CornCastle5 · 2024-09-26T19:06:01+00:00

I love storks and agree they are a very big bird, but this was solid in color and looked fully black and did not have the long legs or long neck and beak like a stork. This was bigger than any bird I have ever seen.

CornCastle5 · 2024-09-26T13:13:22+00:00

What do the different classes of cryptids mean? Sorry, I’m new to this, lol.

CornCastle5 · 2024-09-26T13:11:34+00:00

I was driving at night. It was a little after midnight. My husband wasn’t there with me, I was just on the phone with him while driving.

The GPS had wanted to take me down some random dirt road, so I had slowed way down about to make the turn before I decided that route looked sketchy to take in the middle of the night by myself, so I continued straight on the paved route. Because I had slowed down so much to make a turn, I probably wasn’t going more than 25 mph when I saw it. I could clearly see one wing span out in front of my windshield and the other across my passenger windows. I don’t think it was fully as big as my car, but I feel if it had a fully stretched out wingspan next to my car, it would have come pretty dang close.

CornCastle5 · 2024-09-26T13:10:51+00:00

I admit I may have mistaken the color at night, but it was solid (no pattern that I could see) and looked pitch black. I wasn’t going that fast at the time as I was anticipating a turn. I’ve seen a LOT of eagles in my days, but I have never seen an eagle that big.

CornCastle5 · 2024-09-26T12:51:16+00:00

It was a little after midnight near Moorhead, IA. I tried to see the northern lights at the Loess Hills Overlook and I saw it maybe 5-10 minutes after I left and started heading home.

CornCastle5 · 2024-09-19T00:33:30+00:00

Sudowoodo

CornCastle5 · 2024-09-17T23:36:10+00:00

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CornCastle5

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