25 replies to this topic

[Dene]

First of all let me give you some background info.  I work as a Mental Health Practitioner and and very familiar with delusional thinking and visual halucinations.  I do not believe that I myself am mentally ill or any of my family members.  
Second: the location of these sightings is in Northwestern Wisconsin at our very remote hunting cabin.  We own 80 acres of land but it is surrounded by thousands of acres of National forest.  It is the only cabin down a dead-end dirt road and the nearest neighbor is a mile away.  We frequenly hear wolves and see bears in our yard.

The first time we saw the flashes of light was 5 years ago.  My then 12 year-old daughter and I were the only ones awake with my husband and son sleeping in another room. It was aprox. 11pm.  I noticed a light down the road and thought a car was coming. I was watching out the window when suddenly there was a very bright flash of white light which looked like a camera flash only 1000x brighter right on the edge of the yard between the cabin and the road.  I thought there was someone outside sneaking around with a flashlight and became very scared.  We locked the door and sat quietly and observed the flashes going off intermittently every 5-10 minutes from different locations in the woods around the cabin.  My daughter and I sat up for 2 hours observing this until we got too tired to stay up.  The next day I told my husband about it and I tried to figure out what it could have been.  I thought perhaps the DNR had placed tracking collars on the local wolf pack which had a flashing light on it so I contacted the WI DNR but they denied any such device and when I asked them if they knew of any other explination they did not.

The second incident happened later that summer about 10p.  This time my husband and daughter where standing outside on the deck on the back side of the cabin when all of a sudden a flash went off on the edge of the yard not 10 feet from them.  They came running in the cabin and said they neither heard nor saw anything other than the flash of light.

The third time was last summer when it was just my husband and I at the cabin. It was July and we were in bed around 11pm.  My husband was asleep but I was awake and looking out the bedroom window.  I noticed some flashes and though perhaps a thunderstorm was coming.  I went out to the dinning room and looked out the window and observed a flash of light coming from the field behind the cabin. Out the back there is the yard then a short trail which comes out in a field.  I went to wake up my husband to come see and we observed the bright flashes of light going off in the same location every 3-5 minutes.  It originated at ground level and seemed like a bright ball of light which exploded outwards.  It was so bright it lit up an entire wall of the surrounding forest.  We stood there for an hour trying to figure out what could be causing it and when we concluded it must be alien in nature we became very frightened and decided we didn't want to see anymore and went to bed. I lay awake all night afraid that perhaps little green men were creeping around outside the cabin.  The next morning we were very shook up.  We took the shot gun and walked down the trail to the field to see if we could see anything but there was nothing to be found but briar bushes but nothing to indicate what caused the lights.

Forth time was this past New Years Eve.  My mother and her Korean exchange student were over visiting from Michigan so we took them up to the cabin.  Right after midnight my mother notided a flash out the side window and asked, "What is that; fireworks?"  I told her, "No, that is those flashed I've been telling you about."  The flashes went off intermittently for 15 minutes and moved from the South side of the cabin to the East side and went further back far into the forest.  There was 3 feet of snow on the ground and the only way into our cabin is down the dead end road.  Running behing the cabin to the East is a deep creek so there is no way anyone could come in or out from any other direction other than our road.  The next morning we walked down the road looking for fresh tire or foot print and found nothing at all.

The last time was this summer- June 2011.  My husband and I were at the cabin and right after dark the flashes began far off to the North and then came closer and surrounded the cabin on 3 sides.  They went off about every 5 minutes from different directions and distances from the cabin.  This went on until the sun came up the next morning.  

I do not know what is causing these flashes but the fact that five other people have witnessed them make be believe I am not crazy.  It is not lighting, northern lights or car head lights.  As a matter of fact there is no electricity at the cabin as it is very primitive and no powerlines on the road.  It is not a transformer.  It comes from ground level and is very, very bright.  I have searched for a logical explination but have never found anything that explains what we have seen.  I would like to hear from others who have witnessed the same phenomenon.  I have been trying to capture it on video and have one shot of a quick flash in the distance but it is inconclusive.

[supervike]

Very bizarre.  Hopefully you can catch some better video.

Is 'swamp gas' a real phenomena?

[heavenlyextraterrestrial]

Dene, on 19 August 2011 - 06:21 PM, said:

First of all let me give you some background info.  I work as a Mental Health Practitioner and and very familiar with delusional thinking and visual halucinations.  I do not believe that I myself am mentally ill or any of my family members.  
Second: the location of these sightings is in Northwestern Wisconsin at our very remote hunting cabin.  We own 80 acres of land but it is surrounded by thousands of acres of National forest.  It is the only cabin down a dead-end dirt road and the nearest neighbor is a mile away.  We frequenly hear wolves and see bears in our yard.

The first time we saw the flashes of light was 5 years ago.  My then 12 year-old daughter and I were the only ones awake with my husband and son sleeping in another room. It was aprox. 11pm.  I noticed a light down the road and thought a car was coming. I was watching out the window when suddenly there was a very bright flash of white light which looked like a camera flash only 1000x brighter right on the edge of the yard between the cabin and the road.  I thought there was someone outside sneaking around with a flashlight and became very scared.  We locked the door and sat quietly and observed the flashes going off intermittently every 5-10 minutes from different locations in the woods around the cabin.  My daughter and I sat up for 2 hours observing this until we got too tired to stay up.  The next day I told my husband about it and I tried to figure out what it could have been.  I thought perhaps the DNR had placed tracking collars on the local wolf pack which had a flashing light on it so I contacted the WI DNR but they denied any such device and when I asked them if they knew of any other explination they did not.

The second incident happened later that summer about 10p.  This time my husband and daughter where standing outside on the deck on the back side of the cabin when all of a sudden a flash went off on the edge of the yard not 10 feet from them.  They came running in the cabin and said they neither heard nor saw anything other than the flash of light.

The third time was last summer when it was just my husband and I at the cabin. It was July and we were in bed around 11pm.  My husband was asleep but I was awake and looking out the bedroom window.  I noticed some flashes and though perhaps a thunderstorm was coming.  I went out to the dinning room and looked out the window and observed a flash of light coming from the field behind the cabin. Out the back there is the yard then a short trail which comes out in a field.  I went to wake up my husband to come see and we observed the bright flashes of light going off in the same location every 3-5 minutes.  It originated at ground level and seemed like a bright ball of light which exploded outwards.  It was so bright it lit up an entire wall of the surrounding forest.  We stood there for an hour trying to figure out what could be causing it and when we concluded it must be alien in nature we became very frightened and decided we didn't want to see anymore and went to bed. I lay awake all night afraid that perhaps little green men were creeping around outside the cabin.  The next morning we were very shook up.  We took the shot gun and walked down the trail to the field to see if we could see anything but there was nothing to be found but briar bushes but nothing to indicate what caused the lights.

Forth time was this past New Years Eve.  My mother and her Korean exchange student were over visiting from Michigan so we took them up to the cabin.  Right after midnight my mother notided a flash out the side window and asked, "What is that; fireworks?"  I told her, "No, that is those flashed I've been telling you about."  The flashes went off intermittently for 15 minutes and moved from the South side of the cabin to the East side and went further back far into the forest.  There was 3 feet of snow on the ground and the only way into our cabin is down the dead end road.  Running behing the cabin to the East is a deep creek so there is no way anyone could come in or out from any other direction other than our road.  The next morning we walked down the road looking for fresh tire or foot print and found nothing at all.

The last time was this summer- June 2011.  My husband and I were at the cabin and right after dark the flashes began far off to the North and then came closer and surrounded the cabin on 3 sides.  They went off about every 5 minutes from different directions and distances from the cabin.  This went on until the sun came up the next morning.  

I do not know what is causing these flashes but the fact that five other people have witnessed them make be believe I am not crazy.  It is not lighting, northern lights or car head lights.  As a matter of fact there is no electricity at the cabin as it is very primitive and no powerlines on the road.  It is not a transformer.  It comes from ground level and is very, very bright.  I have searched for a logical explination but have never found anything that explains what we have seen.  I would like to hear from others who have witnessed the same phenomenon.  I have been trying to capture it on video and have one shot of a quick flash in the distance but it is inconclusive.

I'm sorry, I have no clue what those lights could be but I wanted to post just because no one else had! A mystery for sure.

[pixiii]

I'm not sure if you have visited these links before, but the first one is where you can report what you have seen regarding "light anomalies" which might be a bit of help.  It is run by scientists/students/volunteers who share an interest in the area of all types of light anomalies on earth.  

There is this one on Earth Lights

And this is another one on The Earth's Anomalous Lightforms

[Dene]

pixiii, on 20 August 2011 - 01:52 PM, said:

I'm not sure if you have visited these links before, but the first one is where you can report what you have seen regarding "light anomalies" which might be a bit of help.  It is run by scientists/students/volunteers who share an interest in the area of all types of light anomalies on earth.  

There is this one on Earth Lights

And this is another one on The Earth's Anomalous Lightforms

Thanks for the links but how the earth lights are described do not sound like what we saw but I will post on that first website and see if they might be able to figure this mystery out.

[RingFenceTheCity]

Dene, on 20 August 2011 - 08:08 PM, said:

Thanks for the links but how the earth lights are described do not sound like what we saw but I will post on that first website and see if they might be able to figure this mystery out.

Thanks for sharing your story. It's glowbirds imo. Type "Lanark Hotel Ghost On CCTV" to see footage of a luminous orb show it's head and flapping wings at t=52 secs.

[ships-cat]

How interesting....

Was there any sound accompanying the flashes ?

Could you actually SEE a discrete, point, light-source (in the sense of - say - a camera flashbulb) or was the flash just a general burst of light without a discernible spot source ?

Any particular weather conditions ?

meow purr

Edited by ships-cat, 21 August 2011 - 11:14 AM.

[Rafterman]

ships-cat, on 21 August 2011 - 11:14 AM, said:

How interesting....

Was there any sound accompanying the flashes ?

Could you actually SEE a discrete, point, light-source (in the sense of - say - a camera flashbulb) or was the flash just a general burst of light without a discernible spot source ?

Any particular weather conditions ?

meow purr

I agree, some more information would be helpful.

The first thing that came to mind was automated trail cameras.  But that doesn't completely fit with your story.  It could be some kind of methan discharge - i.e. swamp gas - yes it's real.  Is this an active area for gas exploration?

Here's an idea - next time you see it, grab your husband and whoever else is around and go check it out.

Sounds fascinating.

[ships-cat]

I've never seen a methane explosion (other than after a curry), but I would imagine they would not look like camera flashes. There would be a fireball of some sort, and smoke, not just a bright flash.

There would also be a noise. (and a smell).

meow purr ???

[Rafterman]

ships-cat, on 21 August 2011 - 02:40 PM, said:

I've never seen a methane explosion (other than after a curry), but I would imagine they would not look like camera flashes. There would be a fireball of some sort, and smoke, not just a bright flash.

There would also be a noise. (and a smell).

meow purr ???

It would depend on how far away you are from it when it ignited.

[ships-cat]

Weeeeell.... Dene's description suggests varying distances on different occassions... as far away as miles, and as close as a hundred feet or so.

A methane explosion... dunno... doesn't sound right, somehow.

meow purr

[omni heretic]

Do you know anything about the geology of the area? Earthlights are supposed to occur near fault lines.

This is just total speculation, but your flashes sound like electrical discharges of some kind (from a geologic source, like earthlights?).  If so getting too close to them might be dangerous.

[Dene]

ships-cat, on 21 August 2011 - 11:14 AM, said:

How interesting....

Was there any sound accompanying the flashes ?

Could you actually SEE a discrete, point, light-source (in the sense of - say - a camera flashbulb) or was the flash just a general burst of light without a discernible spot source ?

Any particular weather conditions ?

meow purr

There have never been any sounds even when my husband and daughter were standing outside 10 feet from it- they heard absolutly nothing. Weather conditions have varied from clear, star-filled night sky to overcast and also a winter night where there would be no lightning. But I know the difference between these flashes and lightning.  First of all, they are at ground level and there is always a single flash just light a giant flashbulb. Yes, I have seen a point, light-source on a few occasions when it is close enough.  It looks light a ball of light about the size of a basket ball then exploding outwards like a giant flashbulb; if that make any sense.

[Dene]

omni heretic, on 21 August 2011 - 06:44 PM, said:

Do you know anything about the geology of the area? Earthlights are supposed to occur near fault lines.

This is just total speculation, but your flashes sound like electrical discharges of some kind (from a geologic source, like earthlights?).  If so getting too close to them might be dangerous.

I have wondered if it might be some sort-of electical charge.  I think the area has a lot of iron ore because the Iron Range is close by.  I don't think it is swamp gas because the descriptions of that is like a greenish fog like glow.  I've thought of trail cams but why would anyone put trail cams on our private 80 acres?  That also doesn't make sense because 2 of the flashes have been right on the edge of the yard and if we were walking around the yard we should have been tripping them.  Also, the light seem to move around- first close then far and then somewhere else except for that one night when it stayed in the same spot in the field. We also thought perhaps the neighbor has a dog that roams around with a flashing collar.  I did find where they make them for bear-hunting dogs to enable the hunters to locate their dogs.  But this summer we stopped at the neighbor's house (which is a mile away) and knocked on his door and asked him if he'd ever seen any strange lights.  He looked at us like we were crazy.  We asked if he had a flashing collar on his dog and he said no then he showed us his dog- a little yorkie.  If a wolf pack finds a dog they will kill it, I can't immagine anyone's family pet running around in a forest full of wolves especially at midnight on New Year's Eve with 3 feet of snow on the ground. We have also though maybe someone was playing a trick on us but why?  And who in there right mind would go through a forest in 3 feet of snow with wolves? Plus we never found footprints or tire tracks on our road (the only way in.)  I have been trying to find a logical explination and nothing fits.

[RingFenceTheCity]

Dene, on 22 August 2011 - 12:33 AM, said:

I have been trying to find a logical explination and nothing fits.

I've got a link here which shows a luminous orb on a hotel's CCTV camera. If you fast forward to t=52secs then you'll see a bird's head bobbing and a left wing flapping. You've got the same thing imo

VIDEO: Security camera captures ghostly image at historic village

Also, read this posted in another forum:

Quote

Ok, Im posting this in the hopes that someone can shed some light on what this creature is that my friend and I heard for several years when we were teens.
Im open to the fact it may be an animal/bird I don't recognise, but I really cannot think of what it might be. I've lived in the UK my entire life, often in the country, and Im fairly sure I know most of our wildlife and the noises it can make. My friend has also lived in the country her entire life, and neither of us have an idea of what this was.

My friend lives in a big, old fashioned house in the middle of no-where, surrounded by woodland, in Norfolk.
When we were 17, almost 13 years ago now, my friend told me she had heard something odd in her garden the night before. She said that at first, she thought it was a horse whinnying in the distance as it had that screeching yet fluctuating pitch that horses have.
But she then realised it was far too close to their house to be that, and seemed to be coming from a tree. And it also had a very odd second sound running in tandem with it, a long, high pitched, consistent whine.
I didn't think much of it, I just assumed she'd mis-identified an animal or bird call.
My friend then heard it again another night, and this time paid more attention and gave me a good description of the sound:
It was a 'machine gun' like 'ah-ah-ah-ah' sound, that rose and fell in pitch from as high pitched as a squeaky gate to a low growling. It was relatively loud.
While this sound happened, a second sound ran in the background, like someone just pressing down on middle C on a keyboard and holding it there. It did not alter pitch, and didn't seem to stop for 'breath', almost like it was mechanical. A real creature would not be able to hold a sound that long without having to breathe.
She did an impression of it for me.

I was now interested, if only because I wanted to know what animal it was. I like animals, I like seeing wildlife.
I went over one night for a sleepover, hoping to hear it, but it was getting late and it hadn't made an appearance.
My friend and I decided to 'call' for it out of her window in the hope of luring it out. We didn't actually expect it to appear.

We opened the window, and I did the high pitched 'eeeeee' whine while she did the chattering machine-gun sound.
We did this for a few minutes (during which point we were glad no-one else lives near there, for the sight of 2 teen girls making crazy noises out of the window at midnight would have been a bit worrying), and nothing 'called back'.
I told her we'd swap, that she'd do the whining, and I'd do my interpretation of what she'd described.
Again, nothing emerged so we got bored and decided to just mess around. I began repeating the sound, but louder and more angrily, as if I was shouting at the thing. Within seconds, we heard the 'whine' start up, and both froze.
Then the other sound chimed in. It was exactly as she'd described and clearly something residing in the tree opposite the window. It was dark, and the tree had lots of leaves, so we couldn't actually see anything, we could just hear it.
I wasn't scared at this point, as I was too busy trying to work out what it could be. I think my friend was just pleased someone other than her had heard it, as apparently her parents claimed not to ever hear it.

I continued calling to it, messing it about a little, and it suddenly sounded really ticked off. It got louder and more growly and aggressive, and we both freaked out a little and slammed the window.
It died down about 30 seconds after that, and we gave up on it for the night because we were both a little freaked out.

A few nights later, my friend met with me and told me she'd heard it again the night before, but this time, it threw itself at her window.
It was calling for perhaps a minute, then it paused, and she suddenly heard a 'whump' against her window.
Shortly after, her dad came into her room asking what the bang was. When he looked, there was no sign of any impact with the window, and no signs of anything on the ground below.

After this, we kinda put it out of our minds, and it wasn't heard again for a long time. Then one night, we were out camping in a tent in the yard. The 'garden' was basically a huge expanse of woodland and fields, so we'd sometimes camp out there for fun.
We were just chatting in the tent, quite late, and it just randomly began chattering from the tree above the tent. We hadn't heard it in so long that we both just looked at one another, listened for a while, then carried on talking. It kept going for ages. But this time, it seemed it didn't have the high pitched 'whine' with it. This was the first time we'd heard it without that.

As far as I know, this was the last time it was heard.
Neither me nor her have heard it since.
At the time it was around, several dead birds were found scattered about the area. But there are feral cats, birds of prey, and probably weasels in the area, so Im not saying it had to be connected to the sound.

So....does anyone have any idea what this could have been?
I've searched extensively for sounds of british animals, and nothing matches, they all sound far too recognisably 'bird-like' or obviously animal like.I've searched ever since these events for something which sounds like this, and yet to find anything.

I suppose what we can conclude is that it lives in a tree.
It can either fly or jump, given that it threw itself at an upstairs window some 15-20 metres away from the tree. I don't know any british animal that could jump that distance in one, so Im having to conclude it flew.
If it flies, that suggests one of only two things in england that do: birds and bats.
British bats tend to be very small, shy, not the kind of animal that would sit in a tree and shout at people. I also doubt any british bat could fly into a window with enough force that it could be heard on the other side of the house.
So that leaves bird. And a bird that seems to come out at night, as we never heard it in the daytime. I've checked out the call of every night bird in the UK, and nothing that matches.

My friend and I have always referred to it as 'the thing'. Even now, we talk about 'the thing' and still speculate as to what it was.
Obviously, most people we tell either don't believe us or try and tell us it 'was a duck' or 'it was a squirrel'. I know it wasn't anything I've heard before or since, and I know my knowledge of wildlife isn't lacking.
So I wonder if it were something that shouldn't have been here at all, some kind of foreign species. It was heard for about 2 years before we stopped hearing it, so that might give some idea as to its lifespan.

If it wasn't an actual animal, I really don't know.
Anyone who could give an idea of what it might be, natural or supernatural, that would be great!

Edited by Le Lapedalleur, 22 August 2011 - 01:11 PM.