Loch Ness has its monster. Does San Antonio have one, too? Strange sightings of a huge flying creature have been reported as recently as six months ago. Is it a monster or myth? Guadalupe Cantu III was busy working his newspaper route, but he says the big news of that day 10 years ago flew right over his car. He says he's seen what most have not — an unidentified flying object, one that still scares him. "We were afraid that it would come at us. So we stayed in the car till it passed this way," witness Guadalupe Cantu III said. "This thing's all feathers, all black. Much bigger than me. It looked at us. It had verystooped-up shoulders." The beast has been spotted from the Rio Grande Valley to the mountains of New Mexico.
"(It) looked like what was possibly two people standing on top of a mountain up there," said David Zander, who saw the monster in New Mexico. "Something that big ... I guess it kinda makes you feel like it could come over and carry you off if it wanted to." San Antonio's Ken Gerhard has written a book on these dark birds as big as planes, with wingspans from 15 to 20 feet. Native Americans called them thunderbirds: depicted in their art, their flapping wings were said to cause explosive noises. "What's interesting is that the reports of these giant, raptor-like birds do continue into modern times," saidGerhard, a cryptozoologist. Cryptozoology is the study of and search for legendary animals to prove their existence. He says there's solid evidence something is overhead. "I believe there's a good chance that a lot of large, prehistoric animals, if you will, remain undiscovered by modern science," he said. So what could the giant birds be? Some witness sketches eerily resemble prehistoric creatures, like the pteronadon of 160 million years ago.
The giant man-eating "Haast"s Eagle" of New Zealand really did exist according to new research, it would have weighed up to 40lbs and is thought to have hunted flightless birds such as moa and evenhuman children."A massive man-eating bird of prey from ancient Maori legend really did exist, according to new research.
Scientists have known about the existence of Haast"s eagle for over a century based on excavated bones, but the behaviour of these giant birds wasnot clear."
Cryptozoologist Karl Shuker looks back at a case from 1998 in which he received information from a University Professor on a possible stuffed thunderbird being kept in the town of Spanish, Ontario. "Karl Shuker: In 1998, I received the following fascinating information of possible relevance to North America"s ongoing thunderbird or "big bird" mystery.
And this time it involves something much more substantial than a missing thunderbird photo - nothing less, in fact, than what may be a missing stuffedthunderbird!"
More sightings of a huge flying creature, originally reported by KENS, have prompted an investigation to determine if it is a monster or myth. "Even though it was dark, the thing itself was black. The blackest I"d ever seen," said Frank Ramirez. Years ago, Ramirez thought he was after a prowler in the back of his mother"s Southwest Side home. But what greeted him on the garage rooftop still gives him goosebumps now. "That"s when the thing up there turned to me, and it was in a perched state, and it started to turn," he said. "It started to move its arms and this giant blackness was just coming out. At thatpoint, I dropped the stick and I ran." Ramirez sketched a drawing of the large, bird-like creature.
The image is disturbing, and similar to dozens of sightings across San Antonio and South Texas. "If you were to take a man"s face and pull his chin down, just like a stretched face," said Ramirez. "I was just terrified and as I was running. I just thought it was going to carry me off or something." An earlier KENS story about a large, prehistoric-like bird drew more than 100,000 hits on MySanAntonio.com. More than a few people in San Antonio came forward to say they"d seen the creature, too. One woman contacted KENS by e-mail, saying that because of our story, she now knows she"s not crazy. KENS caught up withcryptozoologist Ken Gerhard at the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. Gerhard recently wrote a book, called "Modern Sightings of Flying Monsters" on the large, dark birds. "When investigating mystery animals, it"s important to point out that there are vast areas of land, even here in South Texas, that remain uninhabited," said Gerhard. "If an animal like big bird does exist, it certainly needs some habitat, somewhere to hide.
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Loch Ness has its monster. Does San Antonio have one, too? Strange sightings of a huge flying creature have been reported as recently as six months ago. Is it a monster or myth? Guadalupe Cantu III was busy working his newspaper route, but he says the big news of that day 10 years ago flew right over his car. He says he's seen what most have not — an unidentified flying object, one that still scares him. "We were afraid that it would come at us. So we stayed in the car till it passed this way," witness Guadalupe Cantu III said. "This thing's all feathers, all black. Much bigger than me. It looked at us. It had verystooped-up shoulders." The beast has been spotted from the Rio Grande Valley to the mountains of New Mexico. 
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