Strange flying creature seen near Delano
Searching one of my favorite sites for weird and strange tales I ran across a creature sighting near the small town of Delano.
The creature is described as having a bat like body with a head similar to that of a crow and covered completely in feathers. Witnesses estimated it to be about three feet tall and about the size of a large dog (between 40 and 60 pounds). It's been seen mostly near Avenue 8 between Delano and Richgrove for the past seven months or so.
Locals also think that it may be eating stray dogs as many mutilated carcasses have been found in the area with feathers similar to that seen on the creature found next to it.
As to what this creature could be, I don't know. I wish there was a description of the wing span, not the height of the creature, as that could help explain things more. My first thought is it's just nothing more than a vulture, but the description is a bit different. That and I don't think a vulture would leave feathers as it's head and neck are featherless to begin with.
So this had me thinking about a story I wrote about sometime ago of another large flying creature spotted in the Central Valley, this time in Fresno. This sighting was of a large bird like creature with a 12 foot wing span seen flying over Fresno. Could this creature and the one seen in Delano be somehow related?
To be honest I think the creature is just a misidentification of a regular bird (perhaps a hawk) and not some strange dog eating creature roaming the country side. As for the feathers found by the dogs, could be any type of bird. Crows are scavengers and the feathers could be from them.
Or I could be completely wrong and there is some unknown creature flying around the country side in the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley. I'll keep my eyes and ears open for anything else regarding these sightings.
Comments
I was reading your blog on a flying creature in Delano. It was describe as doglike with a raven's head and a 12ft wing span. I think I can positively identify the cryptid in question. I grew up in the Mojave Desert so Ive seen my fair share of strange looking creatures. If you are ever driving on H near the road that leads to Edwards Airfoce Base. you will from time to time see a dog sized bird with a 9ft wingspan but they are simply Condors. they look very much like dogs when they are sitting hunched on the ground, and with low visibility conditions the wings appear very bat-like. the heads can look like a raven's depending upon variation. I rember the first time I saw one and it looked just like the description.