Some were driving when they noticed it.
Others were working outside or standing in their yards.
A few happened to be near open fields where there was little to obstruct the view.
The creature seemed to glide rather than fly in the frantic, rapid manner people often associate with smaller birds.
And because it appeared against the bright afternoon sky, judging its true size became almost impossible.
Was it actually enormous?
Or did the sky make it look enormous?
That question would become central to the mystery.
The First Reports Were Easy to Dismiss
A single report of an unusually large bird would probably not have attracted much attention.
People misjudge the size of birds all the time.
When an animal is high above the ground, there may be nothing nearby to provide a reliable sense of scale. A bird that is relatively far away can look surprisingly large when viewed against an empty sky.
