Thunderbird Defeathered
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 7th, 2009
As I earlier suggested privately, immediately to the photographer, and was noted publicly by comment makers here, regarding the Pennsylvania “Thunderbird” photograph, the proper investigative procedure is to return to the sighting/photo location and take comparative images.
The individual who submitted the original thunderstorm photo is a busy man, but forthrightly finally was able to return to snap some photos.
He sends them along, and openly admits the mystery is over. Here is the final flight of this one. See his photos below.
The photographer writes, in part:
“Appears that the light post theory was correct. I went back and took a couple photos and you will find them attached. Sorry if it caused anyone nightmares of thunderbirds. Seeing something that looked like a low flying plane and later seeing the picture must have played tricks on my mind. Anyway, I haven’t been back to that WalMart since I took the storm picture. Company presidents really should shop at WalMart more; maybe then they wouldn’t receive over the top bonuses! HA.”
Here’s the original again:
As you recall, several Cryptomundo readers came up with the proper solution, with Tom Burke submitting the following analysis of the photograph first discussed here:
Coming soon. A major announcement about the International Cryptozoology Museum. Your donations are needed urgently. Please, today, donate:
Maybe you just solved the problem of the missing thunderbird nests — they nest in Walmart parking lots, where they are mistaken for lamps!
I appreciate the photographer’s honest effort to get to the bottom of this and coming forth to share the findings.
Like I said before, I didn’t think the photographer was willingly deceiving or hoaxing us. Something showed up on film that they couldn’t understand and was curious. I’m glad we got to the definitive answer behind this one. It would be nice to have this kind of drive to get absolute answers from some of the photographers of other blobsquatches and whatnot.
Good work.
Though not from the exact same perspective, it does confirm the suspected conclusion. Thanks to the original photographer to going back, something of a rarity in these investigations.
This has still been a very instructive incident, because it illustrates the natural human desire to put a label on an unrecognized object, and also how ambiguous even clear photo evidence can be.
Agreed, and it also illustrates the leaps people make when seeing an odd or unknown object or creature. An oddity, aberration, or unrecognized lifeform appears in a photo or video, and suddenly the mind jumps to the far-flung reaches of monsters and legends. Lends credence to that theory of the witness “seeing what they believe should be there” instead of what it might actually be. It’s still an amazing photo just for those clouds and that sky.
This Thunderbird stuff is interesting. I checked my “Mysteries of the unexplained” book after reading the older thread about the arizona picture. Kim was right, the picture is not there. Page 45 talks about erratic enigmatics.
This has been an excellent example of how this sort of thing can be analyzed and investigated. Huge kudos to the photographer for following-up on this. And thanks for the very cool cloud photo, too!
By the way, are those hotels in the background? I sure hope they are, and not townhouses. I can’t imagine anyone leaping at a piece of real estate that offers such a lovely view of a well-lit parking lot!
Great follow up and input from everyone. Nice to see this one fully explored and examined. Great work!
How diligent and honest and considerate of the photographer to go back and sort this out for us!
Let’s hope fate rewards his integrity with a sighting of a real t-bird one day.