One year ago today, a lady in Lakewood, California, observed a “dragon pteradactal” sitting above her head, in her own backyard. It’s time to take another look at this sighting report, in context with other pterosaur sightings and related reports in California, including the two encounters near Griffith Park this year (March 3 and May 13).
First Griffith Park Sighting
The March 3rd sighting was rare in this sense: Three apparent pterosaurs were observed. Up until the end of 2012, the data from 128 of the more credible reports showed only about 1% of the relevant sightings were of more than two flying creatures seen at a time.
The anonymous eyewitness chose the Sordes Pilosus silhouette image (#13) from among 35 images of pterosaurs, bats, and birds, but she said that the head of the “dragons” she had observed were larger than what was shown on the survey page of image #13.
Second Griffith Park Sighting
Devin Rhodriquez told me, in her first email, “I’m almost positive what I saw fly over the freeway in Los Angeles WAS NOT a bird of any kind.” From the same survey page of 35 images, she chose six pterosaurs (no bat or bird in her choices), one of which was the Sordes Pilosus.
Differences in the two Sightings in Los Angeles
The first one was of three long-tailed non-birds, according to the eyewitness; the second, one non-bird with a head crest and a definite lack of feathers. I believe that both sightings were of the California Ropen, a long-tailed pterosaur. The differences were partially from the two persons concentrating on different features. For example, the second eyewitness (Rhodriquez) was concentrating on the head and did not notice whether or not the “pterosaur” had a tail.
Lakewood, California, Sighting of June 19, 2012
The eyewitness of the June 19th Lakewood ropen estimated the tail length at four feet, at least. She volunteered the following:
. . . he had that triagle [triangle] on his tail, like a dragon.
Tail end, sketched by the eyewitness (Lakewood, CA, mid-2012)
The game camera still works, but not yet with a photo of a ropen
The game camera has recorded many images, day and night, of a particular perspective at the back of the backyard in Lakewood, California. It has been recording for about 11 months now. But we do not yet have an image that looks like it could have been from recording a ropen or pterosaur.
Other Evidence From Lakewood
I recently learned of a confirming eyewitness for that same backyard in Lakewood. A close relative told another family member that she had also seen a large strange flying creature in that same backyard, but two years earlier, in 2010. She had said nothing to anybody, for it would have sounded too strange. She spoke up when she learned about the sighting of June 19, 2012.
Another person, the husband of the 2012-eyewitness, heard a strange noise in that same backyard (soon after the 2012 sighting). His wife listened to his recreation of that sound and confirmed that it was similar to what she had heard just before she saw the “huge dragon pteradactal.”
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Pterosaurs East of Griffith Park
Two pterosaur sightings in Los Angeles, in 2013, have caused a stir, being ten weeks apart and the second one being just a mile and a half south of the first one.
Recent Pterosaur Sightings Near Griffith Park, Los Angeles
It was south of Los Feliz (at the I-5), in Los Angeles, just a mile and a half south of where another eyewitness observed three “dragons” flying over the same freeway, two months earlier. That stretch of highway runs very close to the Los Angeles River channel.
Dragons Flying Over Los Angeles
Twice in the first five months of 2013 has an eyewitness reported something like a pterosaur or dragon flying over Los Angeles, both times over the I-5 between Griffith Park and Glendale. Those two sightings were less than two miles apart, near the Los Angeles River, if not directly over it.
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“The Bible of modern pterosaurs” – Searching for Ropens and Finding God
From page 234 of the book:
Aloha. I am writing you because I have also seen a pterydactyl like creature on the Big Island. Twice actually in the last two months. My husband and son also saw one about two weeks ago. I have been doing all kinds of research to see who else has seen this because it seems quite crazy, but I am absolutely positive in what I saw. However, the bird that I saw was not with a thirty ft wing span.
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