Texas Cryptid Hunter: Rare Sighting of a Long-Eared Owl on Texas Coast

I share Crytid Hunter's views on animals. As he recently posted on his blog:

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time at all you know that I am interested in all manner of wildlife. While I have a unique interest in animals that would be thought of as cryptids, I am not one of those people obsessed only with animals that might exist.

I'm also intrigued by any owl sightings; while not cryptid, the owl does hold a place within that realm as a symbol, an icon, of high strangeness. From theories out of the skeptic world to debunk Mothman, aliens, and monsters (Flatwood Monster), to sightings of owls during some UFO and abduction events, the owl is mysterious, no matter if it appears in the esoteric realm or the "real" world.

But as Crytpid Hunter writes, the owl in question is of the real world, yet still out of place: Texas Cryptid Hunter: Rare Sighting of a Long-Eared Owl on Texas Coast:

This species of owl would not be considered uncommon in anyone’s book. What’s unusual about these photos is where they were taken. These images were captured in the Sabine Woods on the Texas Coast just outside of Sabine Pass. The Sabine Woods (formerly known as Grim’s Woods) is a bird sanctuary owned by the Texas Ornithological Society.

Adding to the Fortean vibe to this non-other worldly owl appearance are the names of the woods. The name "Sabine" has a mythological history. According to Wikipedia:

Legend says that the Romans abducted Sabine women to populate the newly built Rome. The resultant war ended only by the women throwing themselves and their children between the armies of their fathers and their husbands. The Rape of the Sabine Women ("rape" in this context meaning "kidnapping" rather than sexual violation, see raptio)

Then of course is the name Grim, which, while lacking the second "M" still evokes the tales of the Brothers Grimm!

Albuquerque residents claim giant owls are eating their pets | Metro.co.uk

Albuquerque residents claim giant owls are eating their pets | Metro.co.uk

Pet owners living in the foothills are now concerned and are keeping a close eye on their beloved pooches and cats. 'We've seen him 3 or 4 times. He's huge. One day when we were walking, he swooped down over my husband's head. He's a huge owl,' said local resident, Cindy Hummel.

One dog owner said she found claw marks on the back of her pet and another said that an owl that lives next to her home killed her puppy.

Thanks to Professor Hex for link.

Strange Frequency: Beeping, Bird Visitation, Radio Noise

I had a very strange experience last night. I spent much of the night sleeping little; listening mainly to Coast to Coast and the news coming in on the earthquake in Japan, and soon after, the tsunami warnings. Earliest reports were warnings for Hawaii and the Washington and Oregon coasts; later, California and Alaska.

I was compelled to listen through the night because of the sheer tragedy and immensity of another overwhelming earth disaster, and also, because we had planned to drive to the coast that day (approximately fifty miles from our home) and spend the weekend there. I was also concerned about my mother and friends on the Oregon coast, as well as family living up and down the Pacific coast.  I tried to sleep, managed to doze off for a while but kept waking up, turning the little transistor on again. Throughout Coast to Coast local tsunami warnings came through, announcing beach and school closures for the Oregon coast.

At one point, a deep beeping sound woke me up. This beeping was deep within me; not from an external source, not an acoustic anomaly. It was inside of me. It became louder, and with it, I saw a large dark bird come flying towards me. All I could see was the shape, no details. Slowly flapping its huge wings as it came towards me, as the beeping got louder and louder. A glowing whitish-blue light or "halo" surrounded this bird. This bird vision was indie my head, not external, but it was definitely connected to the beeping sound. At first I thought the bird was an owl; and it might had been, but it seemed to be something else as well. What, I'm not sure. I had conflicting responses to this bird; one, that all this was pretty damn interesting but as the owl, or bird-creature, came closer, along with the light, I became a little scared and tried to shut it out. It sort of exploded when I did that, and I had the feeling this bird-like creature was both frustrated with me and disappointed that I chose to ignore it.

Then, I heard, again from that same, deep-within place inside me, the sounds of voices talking on the radio. So I told myself it was the radio; I still had it on, the ear buds in my ears. But the radio and ear -buds were both on the night table, and the radio was off.

I cannot describe how this was not a dream. It was not a dream that I awoke from, it was not a hypnogognic dream, it was not a dream then I awake to find I'm really still dreaming, ... none of that. None of that. I was completely awake. The radio talk within continued; I tried very hard to listen to make sense out of it but the voices were indistinct.

Thunderbird Synchronicity
After I wrote this, I visited The Anomalist to find this link to a post from Loren Coleman at Cryptomundo: Tsunamis and Thunderbirds, which explores the stories of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest and earthquakes:

It is amazing what Thunderbird folklore may tell us about past tsunamis, says Ruth Ludwin, a University of Washington scientist. Her research has found that Thunderbird and other cryptid stories and traditions “could relate to a large Seattle fault earthquake around A.D. 900 and specific eyewitness accounts linked to a mammoth 1700 earthquake and tsunami in the Cascadia subduction zone.”

“Along the way, I picked up a lot of stories about landslides,” she said. But she couldn’t find anything that seemed to match the 1700 event, until she took a closer look at the story of Thunderbird and Whale.
“It’s a story of the underworld versus the over-world,” Ludwin said.
The Whale was a monster, killing other whales and depriving the people of meat and oil. The Thunderbird, a benevolent supernatural being, saw from its home high in the mountains that the people were starving. The great bird soared out over the coastal waters, then plunged into the ocean and seized the Whale.
A struggle ensued first in the water, the tribal tale says. “The waters receded and rose again. Many canoes came down in trees and were destroyed and numerous lives were lost.”
The Thunderbird eventually succeeds in lifting the evil Whale out of the ocean, carrying it “high into the air (and then) dropping it to the land surface at Beaver prairie. Then at this place there was another great battle.”

On the Coast
After phone calls back and forth and following news reports we decided to drive to the coast, which turned out to be a beautiful drive. The tsunami warnings for this area have been lifted. As I'm typing this I'm looking out at the shore, listening to the ocean.

Animal Die-Offs and the Fortean Conspiracy Matrix on Binnall of America

My new Trickster's Realm column is now up at Binnall of America: Animal Die-Offs and the Fortean Conspiracy Matrix.

At the start of the New Year, we saw several stories of mysterious bird deaths, along with mass die-offs of fish and other marine life. Stories of large flocks of birds falling to their deaths and other large groups of animals dying were coming in literally every day, sometimes a few in one day.

As with mass UFO sightings and other Fortean phenomena, the mainstream media offered downright silly explanations for these UADs. (Unexplained Animal Deaths.) Fireworks startled birds from their sleep, causing them to drop to their deaths. It was too cold. It was too hot. No food. Disorientation due to severe climate change. Poison. Confused birds, drunk from eating fermented berries. And the most calm, rational and sane response from authority: it happens all the time, it just doesn't get reported. Humans, being pattern seeking creatures, create synchronicities or conspiracies inside of otherwise mundane events.


It's not that many of the above explanations are invalid; in some places, it was climate that caused animals to die off, and we know animals can get drunk eating fermented fruit. Fish kills are not uncommon. The government admitted setting out poison for birds in South Dakota.

But there are no coincidences, and within the context of a Fortean conspiracy matrix, these animal deaths are very strange indeed.

The rest at BoA!

The Owls are turning browner

(thanks to The Daily Grail for link.) Owls are turning browner, changing color to adapt to our changing environment due to climate changes.

BBC - Earth News - Owls change colour as climate warms

Owls Flying In From the Blogosphere

A couple of my recent posts have been about England's Owl mascot used in an advertising campaign. Nick Redfern sent me this image of an owl painted on Giant Rock. Nick took the photo about three weeks, when he was visiting Giant Rock (along with Andy Colvin, author of the Mothman's Photographer series, Greg Bishop, and Adam Gorightly. Sounds like a fantastic trip!)

Owl painted, Giant Rock Ca by Nick Redfern 2010

At hidden experience, Mike Clelland, who writes frequently about owl encounters and has his own eerie history of owliness, wrote about an owl episode December 20th: Owl an a cold winter's night.  Make sure you read the comments that go with his post.

And from Dan Mitchell's Luminosity: Owls, Aliens, and The Hale-Bopp Comet a beautiful article, as usual, about a spooky encounter. After relating strange encounters involving owls, Dan writes of yet another:

In 2004 this owl issue arose once again. At that time I was living in a second story apartment building with my wife and our newborn son. At night I would hear an owl right outside my sons bedroom window. When he would cry at night, I'd go into his room only to see this enormous owl standing either on the power lines directly outside the building (at eye level) or on the auto garage roof a few yards away from our building. This had become an almost nightly occurrence, which on a very profound level was disturbing to me because around this time I was becoming aware of many abduction stories and was having some communication with people involved in the phenomenon. The simple fact that it would stare directly at me was very disheartening. There was this sense of powerlessness involved in that I was dealing with something supernatural that didn't just go away because I wanted it to.

Dan ends his post with conclusions of his own about the appearance of owls in his experiences -- conclusions I tend to agree with. Something is intentionally using the owl; as image, as go-between from the mundane to the liminal. . .

As Mike Clelland wrote in his post: "I'm not sure what any of this means, but I feel obligated to pay attention." Same here!

Odor of the Owl

 I posted these at my blog The Orange Orb; combining them here, about a London perfume house and its new image/mascot. 

Yes, that's right, it's odor, not order. Things do get curiouser and curiouser. Thanks to Brownie, who left a comment with a link on my Merry Christmas post about London's scary and creepy owl perfume campaign. Penhaligons, a perfume shop, has created the Olfactory Owl. Lots of links to this story, just Google as usual, here's one: Penhaligon's unleash a scary anthropomorphic owl onto London's streets.

Dressed in Victorian finery, the Olfactory Owl will be journeying across London on foot and by tube and bus, taking in some of London’s iconic landmarks and shopping hotspots.

The Olfactory Owl will be handing out coupons, and you can join the odoriferous owl on Twitter and Facebook. The conspiratorial Fortean mind reels, making connections between England's rash of staged/faux UFO crashes and alien abductions in schools, and this recent episode of a giant owl walking the streets of London. 

Susan/Brownie left the following comment:

Regan,

I noticed on Penhaglion Ltd. Facebook page, there are lots more man-owl pics, even with children in its lap. Some commenters think its charming. (yikes!)

I know that niche fragrance houses use avant-garde commercials to distinguish themselves from the mass market brands, but this owl-man doesn't make sense (as Lesley noted - owls have poor sense of smell anyway).

http://www.facebook.com/fragrances.for.women.men.Penhaligons#!/album.php?aid=266610&id=294708288947

~ Susan

Lesley Gunter, at The Debris Field, commented on the post, and I blogged about that:

The Debris Field: The Odor of the Owl

Lesley comments on the Owl perfume mascot out of London; she points out something I didn't know, that owls don't have a strong sense of smell.

As Lesley mentions, the owl as image is a strong and major one in esoterica:

We all know the owl is the most esoteric creature around, associated with alien abduction, bad omens, Bohemian Grove and so much more.

"They" must know of the owl's powerful impact on the subconscious in this regard. On the surface, one could point to the popularity of the owl in the Harry Potter novels, and the owl in general is a current popular culture motif in fashion. But being of a conspiratorial and Fortean mind, I think this imagery goes deeper than that.

I also agree with Lesley about clowns -- they're creepy and strange and evoke insidious intent -- and mascots, particularly animal ones, aren't any better.

The Facebook page has several photos of the "Olfactory Owl," which appears to have weird ghostly eyes, sans pupils, or maybe that's just the way they appear in the photos due to lighting.

And of course, we can't forget about the Cornwall Owl Man, that classic Fortean event of 1976. I'm citing Kithra's Krystal Kave page about the Cornwall Owl Man:

source: Wikipedia, illus. by Doc Sheils

The first report of the Owlman came on the Easter weekend of 17th April 1976. Two young girls, June and Vicky Melling, aged twelve and nine, saw what they described as a big feathered birdman hovering over the steeple of Old Mawnan Church. In fact the children were so frightened by the experience that their family cut short their holiday and went home.

Three months later, on 3rd July 1976, around 10:00 p.m. but not quite dark, Sally Chapman, age fourteen, and her friend Barbara Perry were camping in woods around the church. They heard a hissing sound and saw what looked like an owl as big as a man, with pointed ears, and red eyes that were glowing. It was standing near the pine trees and flew straight up into the air, which made them scream.

That's just the beginning, much more to this story that remains a mystery to this day. 

Yeti/Wild Thing Synchronicity

I had a very disturbing dream last night. I think it was because I was coming down with something and my body/subconscious was reacting to that, because after I was awake for about an hour, I suddenly felt clammy, chilled, sore throat -- fall crud. The dream sounds almost funny in some ways but it was very scary, just your basic all around nightmare. Something about the Yeti, with giant claws, ripping people apart. And smaller sized Yetis -- in the dream, they were called "Yet-its" -- who looked more like stuffed toys than real creatures. They were watching the big monster Yeti dismembering people, their bodies (or, pieces of their bodies) slowly slip down the outside of the glass on the windows of the second floor room where I was watching all this, and damn glad of course I wasn't one of the victims. Blood, guts, human body parts, all sliding down the glass. The "Yet -its" were shocked, and sad, at this, because the big monster Yeti wasn't supposed to be a murderous monster, but something went wrong.

I was telling someone at work about this dream and described the "Yet-its" as looking like the characters from Where the Wild Things Are. And a minute later, someone walks into the room with a T-shirt with a large monster character from the book, with the title, in large letters: Where the Wild Things Are.

So, owls and Yetis and Wild Things; a message, synchronicity? Maybe the "message" is simply the appearance of the synchronicities themselves, appearing in animal form, since that's where I like to be -- in the animal realm.

As to the nature of the yucky dream; had another violent dream the night before that, though not involving animals. Sadly, a person I know. Some personal issues in my life right now. Not surprising, given that and my run down state, that my dream mind conjures up attacking Yetis!

Owls Today

In the movie Encounters of the Fourth Kind, the owl figures prominently, which isn't surprising, since the movie is about alien abductions.  I saw the movie for the first time Saturday night, which inspired me to write the post below on owls, posted Sunday.

Today, I see in the morning paper that the owl appears in the cartoon jumble. At work, someone wearing an over sized T-shirt with a giant owl on it walks by me. I go to my desk to find owl stickers. Later, class divides into teams and decide on team names: one group chooses "the owls."

Love that owl synchronicity!

The OWL

The owl, as Forteans know, makes its appearance in various ways within UFO-alien abduction-high strangeness events and occult, para-political conspiracy themes.  Sometimes the owl appears to a witness of the anomalous as what it is: a bird, but. . . is it? Behind the owl there seems to be something else; an alien, an entity. Is the alien pretending to be an owl, appearing as an owl, or using the owl as familiar? Is the image of the owl projected; beamed to the human, as a tool to lull the human into a hypnotic state?

The owl, as a symbol, appears in conspiracies. The owl is on the dollar bill, and it figures strongly within the Bohemian Grove's rites; in these contexts, the owl represents hidden knowledge available to the few -- and privileged.

In a reversal mode, the owl is also a symbol of high skepticism to the point of ridiculous debunkery. Uber skeptic Joe Nickell has used the owl to "prove" that Mothman, the Kelly Hopkinville entities, and the Flatwoods Monster were simply owls. At least three seperate articles have been written by Nickell, where he details his anyalises of these very different (as to content, time and location) events, yet offers up the same solution: owls.

The television Twin Peaks (created by David Lynch)  acknowledged the esoteric imagery of the owl in what is now a cult classic line: "The owls are not what they seem."



Currently, AMC is airing its new series Rubicon, which is about a spy type think tank. Not exactly CIA, NSA, etc. but a department housed in a funky, run down old building that analyzes and reports on global political doings and individuals. Recent accidental deaths and suicides of Rubicon department heads and power mongers are how the main character, brilliant but naive in many ways, ends up as the new boss of his team. He's suspicious of the death of his boss, and begins looking into things. Soon, he's also being messed with. A small figure of an owl, found among the deceased belongings, appeals to and he puts it on his desk. There it sits, as a symbol of the conspiracy ("Who do we work for?" he asks his boss, who is either a mentor, or an enemy -- time will tell) swirling around him. Beyond the metaphoric meaning of the owl, this owl also serves a utilitarian purpose: within its base, someone has placed a bug in order to listen in to our hero in his office. The bug is discovered but is left within, later, he checks on it to find it's gone during a FBI lock down, only to discover the bug has been put back when they leave.