Burning red eyes

Shortly thereafter, in nearby Brownsville, Rio Grande, a similar creature struck a mobile home belonging to Alverico Guajardo on the outskirts of town. Alverico left his trailer to investigate. Upon noticing a large animal nearby, he entered his trailer and turned on his lights to see the creature, which he later described as "something from another planet."

As soon as the lights flashed, the thing rose and stared at Alverico with blazing red eyes. Alverico, paralyzed with fear, could only stare at the creature, whose long, bat-like wings were attached to his shoulders. For a brief moment, the animal "made a terrible sounding noise in its throat." Finally, after two or three minutes of staring at the trailer's lights, the creature moved a few feet beyond the nearest road and disappeared into the darkness.

And these were just the first of many strange encounters with seemingly prehistoric "birds." Also in January 1976, two sisters, Libby and Deany Ford, spotted a large and strange "large black bird" at a pond near Brownsville. The creature was the same height as they were and had a "bat-like snout." Later, using a book on prehistoric animals, they identified it as a Pteranodon.

The San Antonio Light newspaper, in its February 26, 1976, edition, reported that three local school teachers had spotted a huge bird flying low along the road, low over cars, as they drove to work two days earlier. The animal had feathered wings with a span of 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 meters). It didn't necessarily fly; it glided through the air. Witnesses claimed the creature flew low enough that its shadow covered the entire road as it swooped over the cars.

While the three witnesses were observing this large flying creature, they also spotted a second one circling above a herd of cattle. They described it as looking like an "oversized seagull." Later, they consulted encyclopedias at their school and identified the creature as a Pteranodon.

Sightings of the flying reptiles over Texas ceased for a time, but then on September 14, 1982, James Thompson, an ambulance technician from Arlingen, spotted a "bird-like object" flying over Highway 100 at least 150 feet above the ground. It was 3:55 a.m., and the large flying creature was clearly a nocturnal hunter. "I thought it was going to land like a typical airplane," Thompson told the Rio Grande newspaper Valley Morning Star. "I thought it was an airplane, but the thing flapped its wings hard enough to get over the meadow. It had a black or grayish, rough surface. They weren't feathers. I'm pretty sure it was some kind of covering. I just saw it fly away." Like others, the witness described the creature as "a bird, like a pterodactyl."

The authenticity of this photograph is also widely questioned. The photo may have been "enhanced" in a graphics program. Again, there's no information about the circumstances surrounding its creation. A similar photo appeared online in the late 1990s, but it quickly turned out to be a fake by Haxan Productions, created for a television program. It's possible this exhibit is also their "work."