April 17

The Owlman

Mawnan Church via Wikipedia

June Melling's drawing
via Phantoms & Monsters

On April 17, 1976 the Melling family from Lancaster, England were in Cornwall on vacation. Vicky, 9 and her sister June, who was 12 at the time were walking in the woods near Mawnan church when they became frightened by a large winged creature hovering above the church tower. They ran to tell their father Don Melling, who decided to cut their vacation short, since the girls were so unsettled by the incident. Twelve year old June did a drawing of the creature.

Ten weeks later, on July 3, Sally Chapman, 14 and Barbara Perry were camping in those self-same woods near the church, when Sally, standing outside her tent, heard a strange hissing sound. When she turned to see what was making the noise she saw what looked like an owl as big as a man with pointed ears, red eyes and black talons. As both girls anxiously watched the thing leaped up and flew away. Other sightings the next day tallied with the girls' description, but added that the creature was silvery gray in color.

The beast was seen twice again in June and August of 1978, each time in close proximity to the church.

Researcher Jonathan Downes interviewed a young man to whom he gave the pseudonym Gavin, who saw the Owlman in 1989. Gavin and his girlfriend described the creature as gray and brown, about five feet tall and with glowing eyes.

Another sighting of the Owlman was by a woman tourist from Chicago in 1995. She described a man-bird with glowing eyes, pointed ears and a ghastly face with a wide mouth. She also mentioned the taloned wings.

British paranormal researchers Janet and Colin Bord suggest in their Modern Mysteries of the World that the sightings were of an escaped aviary bird. Some researchers suspect the eagle owl, which can grow over two feet long and have a wingspan close to six feet. Unfortunately the eagle owl doesn't tally very well with the descriptions and drawings given by the witnesses.

The last known sighting (of which I'm aware) was by a young woman in 2009.