A Modern Pterosaur in Georgia

The blog Modern Pterosaur gives an overview of the two pterosaur sightings near Winder, Georgia, in 2008. I doubt that the anonymous eyewitness is the only eyewitness of this species of flying creature in Georgia, but she is the only one from Georgia (United States) to have reported anything to me, as of early February, 2011.

Many details can be found in the second edition of my nonfiction book Live Pterosaurs in America, but some quotations from that book may be helpful:

First Pterosaur Sighting

Her first sighting was at 7 a.m., the second, 9 a.m., with both mornings overcast (she felt that significant, for with the sun in her eyes she might not have seen the creatures). Both times she phoned a friend to tell him of her extraordinary experience.

Fifteen miles of her commute is on a two-lane 55-mph road through woods alternating with pastures . . . The southeastern United States had just been hit by Fay [a serious storm] . . . when PS drove to work on August 27, 2008. . . . this weather disturbance may relate to her daylight encounter with an animal I believe to be nocturnal.

. . . an animal suddenly flew from the right, just over the front of her car. Although alone, she yelled, “What the — what — what is that?” . . . Overall, the animal was tan, similar to the light brown of the local deer, and the color was uniform. . . . [From her sketch of the creature—she is a talented artist] a ridge runs along the underside of the tail. [The tail is long, with a heart-shaped structure at the end.]

Second Pterosaur Sighting

Two weeks later . . . the sky was again overcast as she left Winder. Just two miles out of town, however, as she came to a curve at the top of a gently flowing hill, at a little over a hundred yards away, she saw it: the same kind of creature but not the same individual; this one was bigger.

Again she could see a head crest; again, a long tail with a thick ending. . . . The wings “pumped” in a “scooping” manner, as the motion rippled along the body and through the tail. It was the same way with the first creature, reminding PS of some kind of “breast stroke.” She was enthralled . . .

Those two flying creatures might be of a rare species, normally nocturnal but temporarily displaced by a storm, perhaps a pair flying in daylight out of necessity. If they are nocturnal, Georgia certainly has many places for creatures to hide while sleeping in daylight.