Your True Tales
August 2003 – Page 38

Thunderbird, Up Close
by Carol H.

I have been researching information on the "Legend of the Thunderbird" ever since my son and his friends were driving in Southern California in the Mulholland area around 2:00 a.m. My son, Aaron, and four of his friends were driving around the canyon when they heard a "whoosh-whoosh" sound overhead. My son was in the back seat and looked out the back window and saw what he calls a "pterodactyl-like" flying bird that had a wing span that covered the road. He said the motion of the bird's wings actually rocked their car and the shadow passing over them was enormous. He said he was so frightened that he couldn't talk and, after a minute, he yelled, "What the HELL was THAT?" to which the driver said, "Oh, my God! You saw it too. I thought I was going nuts." 

Just for the record, none of these boys were drug users, and believe me, I KNOW this as a fact. These are good kids and my son was nearly traumatized by the event. A few months later, my son-in-law, Todd, was visiting and I was telling him what Aaron had seen and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. He said, "I saw that same THING." He told of an evening before he was married to my daughter, visiting a girlfriend up in the same Mulholland area and was riding his bike. He said it was so quiet up in the hills and there was absolutely no traffic in the wee hours of the morning. All of a sudden, he looked out into the direction he was riding and saw, standing in the middle of the street, under the headlights, a huge bird, the size of a man. The bird was just standing and watching him. He said he thought his heart would stop, but then the bird took a couple of steps and took to the air and flew overhead with the most enormous wing span he has ever seen. He has the bird was not recognizable from any picture he researched from that day forward. We all wanted to stake out the place, but never got around to it.

After these personal stories, I saw an "Unsolved Mystery" type of show that recounted a story of a child being nearly abducted in one of the southeastern U.S. states and the mother's story and description was so much like my son's and son-in-law's experiences. There must be some truth to the existence of these creatures. But... where do they hide? How could something so large hide anywhere and remain undetected. I know the Cherokee Indians had stories of child abductions from the "Thunderbirds" that came in the rain clouds, and there was supposedly some radar evidence that showed these birds flying in packs in the middle of thunderstorms.

< Previous story | Next story >

< main menu