Tag: Australia

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Another Sighting in Perth, Australia

The 1997 pterosaur sighting by a couple taking a walk in Perth, Australia, is known to many cryptozoologists. Less known, maybe almost unknown, is the sighting by a lady, five years later, very near that same neighborhood in Perth. In October of 2007, the lady sent me an email, informing me of the sighting.

Perth is far below the tropical climate zone in Australia, so the presence of any Flying Fox fruit bat is highly unlikely. That said, misidentification involving a fruit bat has been practically eliminated by the long tail described by the couple who saw the flying creature in 1997.

. . . one night . . . I looked out of my window which is at the back of the house. . . . I saw a huge shadow glide over [the house behind us]. It was at least 4 [meter] in wingspan and distinctly had a head. . . . there was no noise. Naturally I was freaked out.

Pterosaurs in Australia

[The 1997 Perth Creature] I would estimate that at this time it was about a quarter mile north of us and quite high. . . Within a minute or so it had reached our position and was about 250 or 300 feet above us and slightly inland. The area was moderately well lit and I saw that it seemed to be a light reddish-tan color. It did not appear to be covered with feathers but had a leathery texture. Soon after it passed us it flew over a more brightly lit sports area which highlighted even more the leathery appearance also bringing more detail to view. The wings were the most definite leathery feature, they were shaped in a triangular arch, similar to a very elongated shark fin, The body also still appeared leathery, though textured as though possibly covered with fine hair or small scales, the distance preventing any finer observation other than that it was slightly different texture than the wings . . .

Fruit Bats and Pterosaurs

When the Umboi native Jonah Jim was interviewed by Garth Guessman and David Woetzel, in 2004, he was shown a page of silhouettes of various species of birds, bats, and pterosaurs. From those thirty-four images, Jonah Jim chose number thirteen, which was of a Sordes Pilosus, a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur. In addition, he saw that the flying creature was glowing, and he estimated the tail length at two-and-a-half to three meters (8-9 feet long), eliminating the bat-misidentification idea.

No Hoax in Pterosaur Sightings

Interviewing eyewitnesses of apparent living pterosaurs, over the past five years, I know that a hoax (or a number of hoaxes) could not have produced the answers they have given me. While writing my book (“Live Pterosaurs in America”), I saw that the data accumulated from descriptions of apparent pterosaurs in the United States showed characteristics not to be expected from a hoax or hoaxes.

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Near Collision with an Airplane

Late in 2008, I received a phone call from a man in England: a plane pilot who had a surprising near collision with a flying creature whose appearance suggested a pterosaur.

In June of 2008, two very experienced pilots were at the controls of a light twin-engined plane, flying over the sea southeast of Bali, Indonesia. While the copilot was looking at a chart, the pilot noticed what he assumed was another plane, heading in the opposite direction, threatening a direct collision. The pilot put the plane into a dive, but the other “flyer” also dove, forcing the pilot to veer away, with a bank to the left. This startled the copilot (who was on the right side), who caught a glimpse of the flying creature as it passed by the right window. Both men were sure, at that time, that it was a creature and not another plane that had nearly hit them, for in passing them it made one slow flap of its wings.

The pilot called it “dark-coloured,” and the copilot called it “quite grey,” making it unlikely to have been an Australian Pelican, which is mostly white. In addition, that pelican has very distinctive contrasts between the white and black, making it almost impossible to mistake for a grey flying creature. Although the Australian Pelican is common in this part of the world, what startled these two men was something uncommon.

Both pilot and copilot noticed something suggesting an elbow on the flying creature’s wing. It may seem that this would correspond with the wing of a pelican, but its barely perceptable when compared with the bend on the wing of a Frigate Bird. Nevertheless, the Frigate bird is eliminated by the clear statement of the copilot: “It had low aspect ratio wings (unlike the traditional maritime soarer).” The soaring Frigate bird has a high aspect ratio for the wings, as do the albatrosses. The pelican, however has a rather moderate wing aspect ratio, not low.

Perhaps most telling against the idea of a pelican misidentification is the pilot’s description of the flight of the creature just before the plane banked to the left: “At that moment, its wings took one enormous, slow, articulated flap.” Those who have carefully observed the flights of pelicans should know that this large bird has two main flight modes: steady wings (soaring or gliding) and many wing beats of moderate quickness. When they dive into the water, pelicans fold up their wings, something nobody could reasonably mistake for a flap; when they land, pelicans might flap only once, just before landing. But the flying creature that nearly collided with the airplane off the coast of Indonesia was 6500 feet high: neither diving into water nor landing.

Giant Pterosaur Between Australia and Indonesia

They were mostly done with flying from Australia to Indonesia, being at 6500 feet altitude and over the sea, when the pilot saw something coming straight at him, on a collision course. He thought it must have been another plane, somehow at the wrong altitude for that heading. He put his plane into a dive . . . The approaching flyer also dived, so the pilot banked to the left, saving them all from disaster.

Both men said the same word at the same time: “pterodactyl.”

Giant Pterosaur in Queensland, Australia

We heard it coming . . . the swoosh noise. . . . we saw was a black shape coming from the trees; the next thing we saw was one wing over the windscreen [windshield].  It crossed [in front of the car]. I couldn’t see the road for a moment, just wing covering the entire windscreen. The body was over the car and its other wing [was] over the back [of the car]. We could not see the body . . . [only]  the wing. [The wing was] bat like leather [with] veins and leather stretched over a bone structure.

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Giant Pterosaur in Queensland, Australia

At about 8:30 one night, Kathy was driving towards the ocean, about sixty miles north of Brisbane, Australia, accompanied by her thirteen-year-old daughter, when they were shocked at the giant pterosaur that flew in front of the windshield.

We saw it at Mt Coolum Sunshine Coast of Australia, one hill away from Centenary Heights Rd. . . . We heard it coming . . . the swoosh noise. . . . All we saw was a black shape coming from the trees; the next thing we saw was one wing over the windscreen [windshield].  It crossed [in front of the car]. I couldn’t see the road for a moment, just wing covering the entire windscreen. The body was over the car and its other wing [was] over the back [of the car]. We could not see the body . . . [only]  the wing. [The wing was] bat like leather [with] veins and leather stretched over a bone structure. That was dinosaur era.

Was  I meant to see this (that kind of feeling)? This thing was bigger than us in every way. We saw it flap its wings once. *swoosh . . . a prehistoric winged creature. I have looked around Mt Coolum for its home. I believe that is where it’s home is. It felt so surreal. I felt it was going home to the Mt. It was heading from Coolum to the Mountain.

I have spoken to one friend who lives at the base of Mt Coolum and she said it would explain the strange swooshing sounds she hears often. She . . . believes in the unknown. It certainly makes you question a lot of things.

Nocturnal Pterosaur of Redcliffe, Australia

In the second edition of my book Searching for Ropens, pages 37-38, a farm boy’s encounter is described. This was around Redcliffe, Queensland, only about forty-four miles south of the Mt. Coolum area where the lady saw the giant pterosaur fly in front of her car.

During his farm chores, between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., he [a boy of about twelve years old] forgot something and had to backtrack. When he looked back at where he had been, at the door of a shed, he saw a large creature with wings. It was on the roof of the shed, just above the door where he had recently been standing.

Although terrified, the boy had a brief view of the body and wings of the creature. It was larger than an average man six feet tall, with wings that folded to the side and back, reminiscent of bat wings. The boy ran to his house for help, but his parents saw nothing; by the time they had responded, the creature was gone.

Pterosaurs in New Zealand

One or more species of pterosaur may live in New Zealand. Even though it is more than a thousand miles from Australia, where many eyewitnesses have seen apparent modern pterosaurs, those creatures would have little difficulty crossing that distance, over a number of centuries.

“The bird that bit Catherine” involves a child who was reading while sitting on a fence. “She became aware of a little creature sitting next to her,” but gave it little attention at first. She thought it to be just a small green bird with a long tail. When it became noisy, she tried to shoo it away, whereupon the creature bit her finger, spread its leathery wings, and flew away. She then realized how unusual it was and ran to tell her father that she had seen a “dinosaur.”

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Science and Clear Thinking

“The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.” I believe Nikola Tesla was thinking clearly when he said that. I also believe that we need clear thinking in the scientists of today, at least as much as in the time of Tesla. It appears to me difficult to define, although its opposite appears easy to expose. Perhaps we should be grateful for extremes that help us to distinguish between foggy and clear thinking. I suggest a couple of examples.

A few years ago, a critic of living-pterosaurs investigations appeared offended that I had, on one of my own web pages, included a link to a creationist site; he demanded that I remove that link, insinuating that I should not be taken seriously because of that link. I now suggest that those who can be offended by such a thing should consider this: Bias is not necessarily confined to those who disagree with you.

I later found a site produced by another critic; he used the words “lies” and “stupid” in his URL, with the content of his site ridiculing me and my associates. Not to repeat much of the content, I simply refer to part of it: He declared that “John Whitcomb” had been sponsored by Carl Baugh and led a group of creationists in an expedition in Africa; I have never gone by the name of “John,” have never been sponsored by Carl Baugh for anything, have never led any group of creationists on any expedition anywhere, and have never set foot in Africa.

Regarding his URL, I have told the truth, not lies; I hope that he was simply ignorant of my intentions. I make no comment about “stupid,” although I sometimes admit that my general intelligence may be inferior to that of some of my readers and my education may seem less impressive than that of some of my critics (not, it seems, this one), but let’s return to “clear thinking,” for that is the subject.

I admit this subject cries for me to dig more deeply and learn more about human thinking, but one thing is obvious: We need to listen to each other, regardless of previous disagreements and regardless of differing labels. Truth can be found in the thoughts of those appearing to be most ignorant and foolish. Even my own most vehement critic did reveal some truth about me: My last name is “Whitcomb” and I am active in promoting the concept of modern living pterosaurs; this critic may have actually helped promote awareness of the case for living pterosaurs.

By the way, I did explore a remote island in Papua New Guinea (north of Australia) in 2004. I traveled to P.N.G. alone and found an interpreter on the mainland, before taking a small ship to Umboi Island. I interviewed many eyewitnesses of the ropen. My associates and I are convinced that this nocturnal flying creature is a modern Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur.

My critic may have confused Papua New Guinea with a small country in Western Africa. He may also have confused me with John C. Whitcomb who wrote The Genesis Flood many years ago. He may also have been confused by my assistance from Paul Nation, who was once a close associate of Carl Baugh. He may also have been confused about the two expeditions of 2004, for the second one was led by two American creationists and they followed my expedition by only a few weeks.

After I had replied to this web site, stating the inaccuracies, changes were made, including the correct spelling of my name: “Jonathan Whitcomb.” The newer page mentions nothing about my being in Africa. I appreciate that correction.

But many other inaccuracies were added, related to sightings and the living-pterosaur investigations. For example, the two indava lights videotaped by Paul Nation in 2006 were compared with high-speed UFO’s (the two lights were actually sitting motionless on the top of a nearby ridge). The critic mentioned those videotaped lights “flying in the sky above the peaks of volcanoes located on Umboi Island created by creationists possessing fake credentials.” (I suspect he was trying too hard to cram too many criticisms into one sentence.) At any rate, the videotaped lights were on the mainland of Papua New Guinea, nowhere near Umboi Island. I’m afraid that the critic has a problem with clear thinking, for he still tends to become confused.

I don’t know why this critic uses the words “lies” and “stupid” for me and my associates; I assume that it is also from some kind of confusion.

More: objective evaluation of eyewitness reports and the nonfiction book Live Pterosaurs in America (published by Createspace; written by Jonathan David Whitcomb) This is a cryptozoology book.

Objective interview methods of Guessman & Woetzel (2nd Umboi Island expedition of 2004)

“Objective Ministries” is a parody or hoax. The university is nonexistent. There’s no “objectiveministries.”