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 ================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBERS============== The BIRDKY Mailing List requires you to sign your messages with first & last name, city, & state abbreviation. -------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, send e-mail to: birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx -------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send e-mail to: birdky-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject line. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Kentucky Ornithological Society web site at http://www.biology.eku.edu/kos.htm * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BIRDKY List Manager: Gary Ritchison, Richmond, KY E-mail: gary.ritchison@xxxxxxx