Clent Hills Sky Watch 2026

Author: Dave Hodrien

Release Date: 20/09/2026

Last Updated: 21/09/2026

Usually by October the weather gets too cold and unpleasant for serious sky watching, so Birmingham UFO Group decided to head out before this point for our last official sky watch of 2026. This time we decided to return to the Clent Hills, more specifically Adams Hill, a location we've only ever visited once before. We initially met up at the parking area near the base of the hill at 7pm. I was pleased to discover that the weather had cleared up, after some mild showers earlier in the day. There was quite a bit of high altitude cloud cover, and it was a little breezy, but at least it was dry.

Most attendees turned up on time and after posing for a group photo we started to make our way up the light red coloured stone path that leads up to the summit of the hill.

About half way up we realised that an absolutely stunning sunset was taking place. For several minutes we became literal sky watchers as we stopped to take some amazing photos.

Hiding in the undergrowth we spotted the first non-human lifeforms of the evening - a small herd of sheep sitting together near the treeline.

We continued our ascent, and soon the trees gave way to a very picturesque open area of grass and bracken.

As we reached a fork in the path BUFOG regular Chris assured us the best way to the summit was to the left. I was happy to listen to his guidance after not visiting the area for many years. As we continued up the hill we separated a bit, with a group storming ahead right to the top, while others (myself included) took it more casually.

We reached a flattened area with some metal plaques displaying the directions of various towns and landmarks. There was also a wonderful view of the sky in most directions. This seemed like the ideal place for the watch to occur, so I fought a particularly bad phone signal and called back the pioneers from the summit. After setting up our camping chairs on the grass alongside the plaques, we dished out a variety of snacks before beginning the usual fascinating conversations while keeping our eyes on the skies.

By this time the sun had set, and we had a great view of the distant lights of Hagley, Blakedown, Clent and Belbroughton.

A while later we were joined by a number of late arrivals including fellow researcher & podcaster Andy Booth, who had spoken at the group only a fortnight before. The cloud layer began to break a bit, making it possible to spot some stars. Unfortunately the breeze remained, which continued to drop everyone's body temperature by the minute.

After a while we were also joined by BUFOG regulars Lawrence, Nicola and the BUFOG Doggos Amber and Lily, who were dressed up in their warm coats.

With the majority of attendees now present I read out details of a number of local cases I'd investigated over the years. While none of the cases were directly from the Clent Hills, there were examples from many of the surrounding towns, including several Flying Triangle cases from Belbroughton.

I'm not sure if talking about the subject was some kind of homing beacon, but all of a sudden people started shouting out that they were seeing unusual objects! Numerous people spotted some distant lights seemingly rising up into the sky very rapidly to the North East in the direction of Hagley. I tried my best to spot them but personally did not, despite them being pointed out with a laser pointer.

At the same time BUFOG regulars Nicola and Rachel, and BUFOG Investigator James all reported that they'd witnessed a small and fast moving red/orange orb darting over the path and into or behind the adjacent copse of trees to the South West. Again I never got to see this but due to the fact that it was seen multiple people it was unlikely to be caused by their eyes playing tricks on them. Hard to know what to make of it.

When Ron checked his photographs he found a red orb of light on one of them in the rough direction that the orb had been seen:

Nicola has confirmed that what she witnessed looked exactly like this. The line behind it is either going to be down to camera movement, or indicates that it may have been moving when the photo was taken. I'm not certain whether Ron has managed to photograph what was observed, but I am convinced there were no red coloured lights visible in that direction.

A little while later James announced he'd like to try a CE5 protocol, and gave everyone present the chance to join him. If you're unfamiliar with what this is, it's essentially a guided meditation in which you attempt to communicate with whatever non-human lifeforms are out there in the hopes of initiating contact and prompting activity to occur.

I and about eight others joined him away from the main sky watch base of operations. We sat down on the grass in a circle and then took part in the session which lasted for about ten minutes. I was surprised at how relaxing it was, it even made us all temporarily forget the breeze.

I wish I could tell you that the mothership then landed, but sadly this was not to be. However, such methods are obviously not going to work all the time, otherwise it would be very easy to scientifically prove the existence of non-human intelligences.

We remained at the location for a while longer, before people began to head for home in small groups due to the cold. When there were about ten of us left I was suddenly informed that there was a small group of lads hanging around in the nearby vicinity with smartphone lights. We became suspicious that they were up to no good and may potentially try to snatch one of the bags, so decided to call it a night and make our way back down the hill together.

As we got about three quarters of the way down in time honoured tradition we suddenly realised that we'd somehow missed a split in the path and were walking down a completely unknown route. For a number of minutes we debated whether to head back up, but in the end managed to find an alternative way back through an area of woodland, eventually arriving back at the parking area. At least this time around there wasn't random cows standing around in the darkness (unlike Clay Hill in Wiltshire the previous year).

After saying our goodbyes we all headed for home. As usual it was a wonderful night of great company, interesting conversation and potentially even some anomalous activity. We will certainly be back to Clent Hills in the future!

Copyright Dave Hodrien 2026