I recently received the following account:
Hello Mr. Strickler - in mid-November 2016, my son and I had been duck hunting from a blind in the Upper Mississippi Waterfowl Area, not far from West Alton, Missouri. It was about 5:15 pm and we were walking back to my truck. I had parked in a small lot off of Harbor Point Rd. and we had to walk about 500 yards.
As we walked along the road, my son noticed a huge black thing descending towards the water's edge. I had never seen anything that large flying anywhere. It definitely wasn't a Bald Eagle or a crane, and as it got closer to the ground we were both shocked that it looked like a human!
It wasn't flapping its wings, but was gliding on a slow downward angle. It was about 50 yards from us, but there was enough light that we could clearly see it. The wings were outstretched and were very wide. The wing shape was similar to that of a bat, but huge! The color was dark, almost black. The body was tapered like a well-built man with long legs. The head was small compared to the body, so I definitely knew it was not human. We were both caught off-guard and were mesmerized by what we were seeing. It landed in the thick weeds by the water and was obscured from our sight.
At that point, we both wanted to get out of there because we had no idea what this thing was. As we quickly walked along the road, we saw this thing crawling out of the weeds and into a small clearing. It was literally pushing itself forward on the ground with its legs and wings in the direction of the water. We could hear the sound it was making as it 'crawled' on the damp ground and mud. It didn't look like it was struggling, but it was an awkward way to move around. Though it had legs, I could not make out what we would think were feet. I assumed this was the way it actually moved on the ground. It slide into the water, then raised up a few times; like a swimmer doing a breast stroke. Then it disappeared into the murky water.
My son will not go to that location anymore, but I'd really like to know what we saw. I told a co-worker, who is also a duck hunter, about the incident. He seemed interested at the time, but I'm sure he doesn't believe me. I've never heard of anything similar to this thing, either around here or anywhere else. Do you have any idea of what this was? I saw your Google ad for humanoid sightings, so I looked you up. We can talk if you'd like. Thanks. JK
NOTE: I received the email late Monday night (5/28) and was finally able to talk by telephone to 'JK' late afternoon today (5/29). I asked the witness why he waited so long to contact anyone. He said that it took him a while to actually believe what he and his son had seen was real. He described the wing span as 12-15 ft. with very wide bat-like wings. He also said that the head was small and kind of shaped like a football with a slight point on the top. He did not see detached arms, but by the way it moved along the ground, the arms were most likely part of the wings. It made no sounds other than those made while it crawled. I also asked if they had a cell phone with them and why they hadn't taken photos. JK said he didn't even realize that until they got back to the car. BTW, his son refused to discuss the incident.
It's an interesting encounter and unlike anything I have heard or read before...except for some of the information I gathered from an individual in northwest Indiana, who told me that he and his wife had been observing this being feeding in the water. If this was similar to the flying humanoids seen in the Chicago area, then that may explain why many of these sightings were near water. I am curious as to it's characteristics underwater. Is it an amphibian or are there gills somewhere on the body. Then again, it may be something totally foreign. Just another question we are left with. Lon
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