Owlman
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| Owlman | |
|---|---|
| Creature | |
| Name: | Owlman |
| AKA: | Cornish Owlman, The Owlman of Mawnan |
| Classification | |
| Grouping: | Cryptid |
| Sub grouping: | Local legend |
| Data | |
| First reported: | April 17, 1976 |
| Last sighted: | 1995 |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Region: | Mawnan, Cornwall |
| Status: | Local legend |
Owlman, sometimes referred to as the Cornish Owlman or The Owlman of Mawnan, is a cryptozoological creature that was sighted in the late 1970s in the village of Mawnan, Cornwall. The Owlman is sometimes compared to America's Mothman in cryptozoological literature.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Reports of sightings
In 1926 The Cornish Echo described how two young boys were attacked by a "strange bird" in the area. The boys saved themselves by running into a grate. As they cowered in the grate in the back the creature let out screeches of frustration, unsuccessfully pecked at the bars of the grate, then flew off.[citation needed] The bird was killed, but nobody who examined the body could specifically identify it.[1]
In 1976 on April 17, two young girls claimed to have seen a giant owl hovering over the local church tower, as did two other young girls on July 3. In the second encounter, 14-year-old Sally Chapman was camping with a friend, Barbara Perry, in woods near the church. According to her account, as she stood outside her tent, she heard a hissing sound and turned to see a figure that looked like an owl as big as a man, with pointed ears and red eyes. The girls reported that the creature flew up into the air, revealing black pincer-like claws. Sightings of this figure continued to be reported on the following day (when it was described as "silvery grey") and on two occasions two years later, in June and August of 1978, all within the vicinity of the church (Bord, 1980).
A further sighting took place in 1989, when a young man and his girlfriend saw a creature "about five feet tall...The legs had high ankles and the feet were large and black with two huge 'toes' on the visible side. The creature was grey with brown and the eyes definitely glowed."[2]
The most recent apparent sighting is from a single witness in 1995. She reported a "man-bird... with a ghastly face, a wide mouth, glowing eyes and pointed ears" as well as "clawed wings". The woman, a student from Chicago, described her experience in a letter to a newspaper in Truro.[3]
[edit] Speculation on the Owlman's nature
In Alien Animals (1985), British paranormal researchers Janet and Colin Bord pointed out that Mawnan church is built in the middle of a prehistoric earthwork. They suggested that the church may be built on a ley line (a straight line that passes through and links several ancient sites), and speculated that the appearance of the Owlman may be a manifestation of earth energy in this place. However in a later book "Modern Mysteries of the World" 1989 they retracted this and stated that they believed that the sightings were probably of an escaped aviary bird rather than a paranormal phenomenon.
[edit] An Eagle Owl?
A more straightforward explanation may be that the Owlman sightings were of an escaped eagle owl (Bubo bubo), a species that can grow more than two feet long, with a wingspan of nearly six feet. This is supported by a report by Karl Shuker of a late 1980's sighting of the Owlman. The witness described it as four feet high, with two large toes on the front of each foot. it ducked down and forwards before it took off. Shuker states that this "calls to mind a very large owl". The structure of the feet is also consistent with an owl identity, as owls have an arrangement of the toes known as zygodactyly, in which two toes point forwards and two backwards (Bock and Miller, 1959). A colony of eagle owls exists in North Yorkshire, and the bird is reportedly capable of crossing the English Channel. [4]
Perhaps the most comprehensive study of the Owlman was undertaken by Jonathan Downes, the founder of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, in his book The Owlman and Others (1997).
[edit] References
- ^ Morgawr: The Monster of Falmouth Bay - A. Mawnan-Peller, The Center for Fortean Zoology (1995)
[edit] Books
- Bord, J. and C. "Alien Animals" (Granada 1980) (pp135-139, 141)
- Downes, J. "The Owlman and Others" (CFZ 2006)
- Shuker, K. "The Unexplained" (Carlton 1996, 2002) (p37)
