A MUFON Field Investigator contacted me about a case that he worked on in March 2022 that occurred in Florence County, Wisconsin. The 'object', after examination of the video, is yet undetermined.
The object does indeed look to be natural, but some interesting aspects can't be ignored. The object does appear to be of considerable size. As well, the object seems to glitch 'in and out' of the video. This may be a result of the video quality, but it is intriguing.
So, what are we looking at? Could this be a Sandhill Crane, a species of bird known to inhabit the area during certain times of the year? Could it be an anomalous winged being?
I recently received the following email:
"Good Day, Sir.
I saw you on 'Fade to Black' with Jimmy Church.
My name is Steve Reigstad. I am a Wisconsin MUFON Field Investigator, and had an interesting case (to me anyway), of the sighting of a winged ‘Something’, seen in Florence County, WI, on March 7, 2022. It was initially described by the witness as a “boomerang” but I believe it to be biological. There is a video also, but as usual, it isn’t as clear, or as close as we would like. In zooming screenshots, which aren’t that good either, I could see what I believed to be large wings.
If you are interested in seeing the details of my investigation and the video that was sent to me, let me know and I’ll put it together for you. Honestly, I wasn’t comfortable with calling it an IFO - (Large Bird), especially in the area in which it was seen, but you are aware of MUFON Rules.
I did comment and pushed my thoughts a bit in my ‘Investigator’s Summary and Conclusions’, without any backlash, which I actually expected at the time.
I know you are a busy man with several projects going on, so I wanted to ask you about it first, to see if you would want this information before I took the time to put it all together for you.
Thank You For Your Time.
No Response Needed. Steve"
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Here is the original MUFON CMS report (unedited):
MUFON
Case Management System (CMS) Case #135836
Date Event Was Reported to MUFON: December 17, 2023
Actual Date of Event: March
7th, 2022 / Time of Event: Approx. 1300hrs, 1pm (Central
Time)
Location of Event: County
Road C, WB, between N and 101, Florence County, Wisconsin.
Lat/Long: 45.474151
-88.130796
Additional
‘to’ Location Information, ‘from’ Event:
Iron
Mountain Ford Airport, KMIT, 5.04 Miles, ENE @74.39°
Town
of Florence, WI, 9 Miles, NNW @349.57° (is 113 Miles Due North of Green Bay)
Point
Beach Nuclear Power Plant, 110 Miles, SSE @162.49°
Lake
Superior South Shore, 79.49 Miles, N @ 359.97°
Weather
Conditions: https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/KIMT/date/2022-3-7
Temperature
(degrees F): 28° F ≊
-2.2° C / Dew Point (degrees F): 19° F ≊
-7.2° C
Ceiling
(feet) 2045 / Wind Direction: NW / Wind Speed (mph): 15 Mph = 24.14 Kph
Lateral
Visibility (miles): 10 / Weather Event: *Light Snow
Astronomical
Data:
Civil
Twilight - Rise 5:51 AM, Set 6:17 PM
Moon:
waxing crescent - Rise 8:38 AM, Set 11:33 PM
Related
Cases:
NUFORC
– None/Checked records from 02/16/2020-08/26/2020.
No
Sightings of any kind were found, in Florence Co. WI
Websites
Checked During Research:
https://discoverwisconsin.com/blog/6-creepy-cryptids-call-wisconsin-home/
https://thedailywildlife.com/large-birds-in-wisconsin/
My
notes regarding the video submitted by the witness:
The
primary object was described by the witness as boomerang-shaped, but also
indicated 'Wings'. On 1st look, it does
present as a boomerang shape, with bent/distorted wing tips. Upon closer inspection, and zoom up to 1233x,
I am confident that the object was in fact biological and possibly a very large
bird. I believe the estimated speed and
directional changes, reported by the witness, were exacerbated by the relative
movement of the vehicle and the curves in the roadway.
My
notes regarding the video submitted by the witness: (cont.)
White
Orb
- Believed to be lens flare or reflection off the windshield. It also was not
seen by the witness at the time she recorded the video.
In
the video, in addition to the primary winged object, at 40secs a white orb
appears in the left side of the frame, moves to the center at 45secs, and leaves
the field of view to the left at 51secs. I asked the witness to Please review
the video, and asked, "Did you see the white orb outside of the vehicle,
or do you believe it was a lens flare or windshield reflection from within the
vehicle?" She responded: "I did observe the white orb in the video,
but not at the time, so I couldn't say whether it was a lens flare or an actual
orb."
The
following is a selection of my Investigator’s Summary and Conclusions:
(Witness
name redacted)
1. On the original report, the witness stated the date/time of the event as 'Approximate' and "April 22nd, 2022 at 1pm".
When I asked if she was confident in that
being the date, she stated "I just checked my original video and it was
March 7, 2022." I will work on the case
using that date and time.
2. She stated in the original report that the
event occurred on HWY 8. When asked if
she could provide the exact location of the event, she stated:
"I was on County C
heading West at the intersection of County N, heading towards 101 Fence."
3. She reported originally that there were 2
witnesses to the event. When asked if
the second witness was in agreement with her assessment, she stated:
"My passenger did
not observe the object at the time until I showed him the video, I am the only
one who observed it at the time."
I
also thought the witness ended the Email interview with an interesting note:
"I am just glad that you and MUFON are going to investigate my video. I
get goosebumps every time I watch it.
It's
like the object was watching me and listening to me sing because as soon as the
song ended it was gone. I've never seen anything that can move the way it had
or at the speed it did.”
December
26th Research Done:
I
believe the object to be biological, possibly a very large bird.
Some
examples of large birds that can be found in Wisconsin include the Sandhill Crane,
which has a wingspan of six to seven feet, and the Bald Eagle, which has a
wingspan of up to 90 inches.
Also,
it would be very remiss of me if I didn't mention the cryptid Thunderbird.
Thunderbirds have been described as massive avian raptors by the Menominee
tribe. The birds were the enemies of the great horned snakes and would prevent
the snakes from overrunning the earth and devouring mankind, according to
Menominee folklore.
The
Menominee Reservation is but 90 miles South of the sighting.
Case Disposition: IFO Natural Phenomena - I believe the object to be biological, possibly a very large bird.
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