With great anticipation, I await the cryptozoological examination of a video of three flying creatures reported to have flown over a beach, in 2006, just south of Belize City, Belize. The circumstances surrounding this video make it extremely unlikely to be related to any hoax. Of course, there is a possibility that the three flying objects were three large birds that held their legs behind them, making them look like they had long tails; but careful examination of the video should reveal the truth, pterosaur or not, for it was recorded by a professional film crew member who used a high-definition camera. I quote from the Live Pterosaur blog:

Beliz Pterosaur

The apparent pterosaurs were high and rather far off, but Kobliha had the impression that they were not ordinary birds. Videotaping three apparent living pterosaurs with a professional camera—that set this sighting apart from other sightings. I [Jonathan Whitcomb] hope to have a copy of his video soon, so that I can analyze the footage.

Sightings in Mexico

[This sighting] is by “Stew,” who was visiting Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in 2000 (“pterodactyl” sighting details) I hope that he will someday get in touch with me.

” . . . about one and a half miles away, a huge black bird-like creature came from the more mountainous region to my left, and flew toward the ocean . . . wingspan about equal to the length of the taller palm trees, I thought about 30 to 40 feet. The wings moved very slowly, almost touching on the downward swing . . .”

I believe RM-2 has information about another sighting in Mexico.

Getting back to the Belize sighting in 2006, the cryptozoologist Jonathan Whitcomb, who is a friend of the eyewitness, showed him the sketch that Eskin Kuhn drew of the two pterosaurs Kuhn had seen in Cuba. The Beliz-2006 eyewitness told Whitcomb that it did resemble what he had seen, but he was not sure if it was exactly the same.

Kuhn Pterosaur Sighting in Cuba

I saw 2 Pterosaurs . . . flying together at low altitude, perhaps 100 feet, very close in range from where I was standing . . . I had a perfectly clear view . . . The rhythm of their large wings was very graceful, slow . . .

They had a long tail trailing behind with a tuft of hair at the end. . . . The head [had] a long crest at the back, long bill, long neck with a crook in it. The chest of the creatures was similarly prominent, protruding forward like the prow of an old ship . . . their wingspan [was] roughly 10 feet.

I refer to the blog post “Pennsylvania Pterosaur”

What caught my attention to this sighting was the obvious rebuttal to the model-pterodactyl-misidentification suggestion that I occasionally read about. There is no mechanical model, of a pterosaur, that catches and eats ducks or rats. Let me explain with reference to this apparent pterosaur in Pennsylvania, quoting from both the Live Pterosaur blog mentioned and the source for that posting on that blog.

In 2006 myself and two of my students were standing outside of my karate school. My school was located on route 119 . . . In Southwest Greensburg PA. This is by no means a rural area.

I noticed a large black bird in the sky. . . . I observed it for about two minutes as it flew towards us very slowly (it seemed slow) until it was maybe another 50 feet away from the tree line . . .  Being that far up the “birds” body still appeared to be much larger than my 100 pound dog (wider and longer).

I called my students attention to it and they were both instantly mesmerized. The wing span appeared to be at least six feet . . . you could clearly make out a long “horn” or “cone” type protrusion coming out of the back of its skull, which was at the end of an elongated neck . . .

This “bird” also seemed to have a long tail . . . As it was almost directly over us we all agreed we couldn’t see feathers anywhere and my student Carrie said “It looks like pterodactyl . . .  doesn’t it?”

It flew over top us and landed in the water behind the school. It was like city run off or whatever and was in a concrete ravine about 15 feet deep [the water itself is shallow] . . .

We could here it splashing around, and Carrie ran around the building to see it. There are always ducks in that water as well as rats and other things. When she came back . . . she said it had taken off, Carrie said it was in the water splashing and eating or grabbing something in its mouth.

No mechanical model would dive into a pool of water, grab an animal or bird, and fly away with the meal in its mouth. But before setting aside the subject of misidentified models airplanes or model gliders, in the shapes of pterosaurs, I refer to the 1944 “pterodactyl” sighting by Duane Hodgkinson. In that sighting, the flying creature with a wingspan of a Piper Tri-Pacer could not have been a man-made model.

I could go on with other sightings but let this suffice: model pterosaurs have no relevance to many critical sighting reports. Critics needs to be more careful before commenting.

Pterosaur Misidentification in Cuba?

“I saw two pterosaurs . . . flying together . . . perhaps 100 feet [high], very close in range from where I was standing, so that I had a perfectly clear view of them.

Eskin Kuhn, a talented artist, drew a sketch of the two pterosaurs, soon after observing them. Misidentification is unlikely, since he was in close range of them and there was no obstruction, and they were very unlike any bird or bat.

The second edition of Live Pterosaurs in America is about to be published. The front cover and a few excerpts are now available online, althought the book itself may not appear on Amazon until December [A later-added note: the book came up on Amazon late Nov 23, 2010]. I here include an eyewitness sighting not found in the first edition of the book, an encounter by a boy who, now as a man, has allowed his name to be included: Aaron Tullock.

“I saw a featherless flying animal with a wingspan of about 4 1/2 to 5 feet and a long tail with a diamond type shape at the tip of it. No hair or feathers anywhere, just leathery reptile type skin. . . . The animal had bumps down its back, feet with longish toes, and long black claws like an osprey has for grasping fish . . .”

One thing strange about this sightings is the manner of flight for the creature. It was hovering just a few feet above the ground, and this lasted for some time. This was in Texas.

Regarding the front cover of the book, take note that the image of that pterosaur is part of the sketch by Eskin Kuhn, the eyewitness of two pterosaurs at the Guantanamo military base in Cuba, in 1971. We in the cryptozoology world are indebted to Mr. Kuhn for this detailed rendition of what he encountered, and thank goodness for this man’s artistic expertise, for we don’t yet have any clear photograph of a modern pterosaur.