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Lesley

Grey Matter

4.17.7

Big Birds and Winged Weirdies

I think I have been writing too much ufo related stuff lately so I decided to switch to another of my loves this week, cryptozoology. Blame it on Jonathon Downes, his c2c interview reminded me of so many cool creatures that I hadn’t spent much time thinking of lately. I feel like I am stepping into R. Lee’s territory, but I don’t think she will mind, especially since this is mostly about birds, rather than Bigfoot.

Yes, I am a Bigfoot fan, but more so I am a fan of all the mystery creatures.

Thunderbirds are probably my favorite, maybe because I live next to the hawk watch and often have to stop for a moment when I see a huge bird and make sure it is a hawk. There is one hawk that is just unbelievably huge and I have never been able to get a good photo of him.

More than thunderbirds, but including thunderbirds, I am really interested in those creatures that seem to be paranormal. Downes reminded me on c2c that Bigfoot isn’t always flesh and blood seeming, nor is he always paranormal seeming. Downes is right, there are likely different creatures we call Bigfoot, for lack of a better term. There seems to be a flesh and blood Bigfoot that leave footprints and has to run to get away from humans, other bigfoots (bigfeets?) leave no footprints and seem to disappear at will. Sometimes a Bigfoot is seen near a ufo, but not most of the time.

Then there are those creatures included in cryptozoology that seem almost purely paranormal. Mothman is the first one that springs to mind. From what I understand, there are varied descriptions of him, some that him had no actual head and his eyes seemed to be in his chest, other times Mothman is described more like a man with wings or more like a huge bat, but always with the red eyes. The thing about Mothman is that he seemed to have a purpose, to warn people of impending disaster. In the most famous sightings of Mothman in Point Pleasant, PA, it was the collapse of the Silver bridge. Mothman seemed to totally disappear from Point Pleasant after that event. Is it possible that people subconsciously knew that bridge would collapse and also subconsciously created Mothman? Although, that does seem possible to me, I would also think that if our minds created such things that there would have been a frenzy of sightings of Mothman or some other unknown creature prior to 911, which was far more tragic event.

Maybe all paranormal creatures have a purpose, but we just haven’t figured out what they are yet.

Mothman, Owlman, Thunderbirds, The Phoenix, Firebirds and so on are nothing new. Giant birds and other creatures with wings are found in probably every ancient culture on earth. All of the ones that spring to mind were considered wise and yet dangerous. We still think of owls as being wise, but other birds are harbingers of death or tragedy, especially in more rural cultures of the Southern and Midwestern US. Here in New Mexico the native cultures seem to have many birds in their lore, thunderbirds, winged men and probably many others that I don’t know of. Some of you may be surprised to know that the symbol of Sandia National Labs is a Thunderbird. I am sure there is a huge conspiracy in the symbolism there, but I am not going to think about it now.

Think about the symbols of most countries that spring to mind, they will almost all be birds or creatures with wings. In the case of England, I am not sure it is the symbol of England, but they seem to use those lions with wings a lot. I remember being at Buckingham Palace and wondering who exactly came up with the idea of lions with wings and why. Some day I will have to research that.

Even in our modern culture we are fascinated by winged creatures. Batman is a good example, but almost all the most popular super heroes can fly, even if they don’t have wings. Even Spiderman, who can’t exactly fly, swings through the air by using his web to pull him from building to building.

None of this is written with the intent of saying there aren’t real, flesh and blood, giant birds. I not only hope, but believe that there are. Some could be sent from another time or place, with a message, or just to call to mind something from ages ago that would otherwise be beyond our grasp. Others could be flesh and blood creatures of earth that are still waiting to be discovered.

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