[birdky] Big Bird

  • From: "Jeanne Hibberd" <Jeanne_Hibberd@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "Bird KY (E-mail)" <birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 08:42:08 -0400

Bird the size of a plane spotted in Alaska
USA: October 21, 2002=20
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A bird the size of a small airplane was recently =
spotted flying over southwest Alaska, puzzling scientists, the Anchorage =
Daily News reported.=20

The newspaper quoted residents in the villages of Togiak and Manokotak =
as saying the creature, like something out of the movie "Jurassic Park," =
had a wingspan of 14 feet (4.6 metres) - making it the size of a small =
airplane.=20
"At first I thought it was one of those old-time Otter planes," the =
paper quoted Moses Coupchiak, 43, a heavy equipment operator from =
Togiak, as saying. "Instead of continuing toward me, it banked to the =
left, and that's when I noticed it wasn't a plane."=20
The Daily News, the largest daily in Alaska, said scientists had no =
doubt that people in the region, west of Dillingham, had seen the winged =
creature but they were skeptical about its reported size.=20
"I'm certainly not aware of anything with a 14-foot wingspan that's been =
alive for the last 100,000 years," the paper quoted raptor specialist =
Phil Schemf as saying.=20
Coupchiak said the bird disappeared over the hill and he then radioed =
Togiak residents to tell them to keep their children in.=20
Another local resident, a pilot who had initially dismissed the reports, =
said he recently saw the bird from a distance of just 1,000 feet (300 =
metres) while flying his airplane.=20
"The people in the plane saw him," John Bouker was quoted as saying. =
"He's huge, he's huge, he's really, really big. You wouldn't want to =
have your children out."=20
Schemf and Rob Macdonald of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said =
there had been several sightings over the past year and a half of a =
Steller's eagle, a fish-eating bird that can weigh 20 pounds (10 kg) and =
have a wingspan of eight feet (2.60 metres), the newspaper reported.=20

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE=20

Jeanne Hibberd
Foundations & Capital Projects
Berea College
859.985.3004
www.Berea.edu

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