October 2009 to August 2023 – Hull, Wetwang, Tibthorpe, Bainton, Fimber, Leeds, Wharram Le Street, North Grimston – UFO Sightings, Big Cat/Dog Sightings
Birmingham UFO Group Case Report
Author: Dave Hodrien
Release Year: 2023
Last Updated: 07/09/2026
Steve first got in touch with BUFOG in July 2023 via our website’s sighting report form. He informed us that he had previously experienced many sightings of UFOs and other phenomena over recent years, which he had taken written notes on. He said that he had been viewing the BUFOG site for a number of weeks and felt that the standard of our investigations is very high, which prompted him to get in touch to get the incidents down on official record.
After I responded to his initial contact, Steve sent me the written notes, covering many separate sightings between 2009 and 2023. I sent back many additional questions. Unfortunately, at this point communication ceased so I only have his initial notes to go on, meaning that in some cases certain mundane explanations cannot be ruled out.
Despite this I still feel these sightings are worth reporting. For each experience, Steve’s original notes are shown, followed by my assessment based on the information provided.
October 2009 – Light Blue Orb
“On one evening in October 2009, I was walking with a work colleague along the concrete hard standing next to the dismantled Hull to Barnsley railway line just off Calvert Lane in Hull (which is now a new housing estate).”
“We were in the course of our employment while walking this route which was a short cut back to the office. We were just talking about general things when my colleague suddenly started tapping me on the arm and repeatedly asking me “What’s that up there!?” At first I couldn’t see what my colleague was looking at, but then I saw what it was. There was a blue white point of light about the same size as other stars around it sharply zig zagging around the star called Vega just next to the constellation of Cygnus which at the time was almost directly overhead us. I stood in amazement watching this point of light zig zagging for about twenty seconds before it then suddenly shot off in a straight line and out of sight at amazing speed. The area was in pitch darkness at the time so we had a good view of this phenomenon. I have no obvious explanation as to what this was but I have never witnessed anything like it. It cannot have been an aircraft due to the sharp zig zag movements it was doing. When we arrived back at the office, other colleagues were there who asked if we were okay as we looked like we had seen a ghost according to them!”
This initial sighting by Steve and his work colleague is particularly intriguing because of the colour and movement characteristics of the object, as well as when it took place. The object cannot have been an aeroplane due to the sudden turns it was making. It sounds much too fast to have been a distant helicopter, and this sighting occurred before drones were commercially available, so this explanation can also be ruled out.
It was the wrong colour for a sky lantern being buffeted around in air currents. These tend to be amber in colouration. A light blue LED balloon would be possible, but again the speed sounds too rapid for this to have been what was observed.
I do wonder if it was a bird performing darting manoeuvres and lit up by lights from the ground. Usually if this were the case the reflected light would be more yellow/amber in colour but I feel this explanation cannot be entirely ruled out.
Summer 2016 – White & Red Orbs
“I have witnessed strange lights close to Vega, the most noticeable was a white point of light which disappeared when a red point of light slowly approached it and began flashing randomly. It was like the red light was communicating in some way with the white light. This was in the summer time of 2016.”
While Steve does not expressly mention the location where this sighting took place, it is likely to be in the vicinity of his next sighting from August 2019, the A166 on the outskirts of Wetwang where he lives.
It obviously appears that the two orbs were interacting with one another due to the observed movement and lighting changes. However, it is also possible that the two were un-related and just happened to be occupying the same area of sky at the time (perhaps even at different altitudes, as this is hard to judge).
As Steve did not specify the weather conditions, the white light which he saw on this occasion may have been a star/planet, drone, distant helicopter or white coloured LED balloon which was then hidden from view by a cloud invisible against the night sky.
A star/planet would be possible, but it should be noted that Steve is interested in the night sky (as can be seen by his naming of specific stars), so therefore would have known if there was a star/planet in that location.
If it was a distant helicopter, then another possibility is that it was on a military exercise and suddenly switched its lights off to fly dark. It is unlikely that a drone would have turned its lights off mid-flight, or that an LED balloon ran out of batteries and went out, although these would still technically be possible.
The red orb is interesting due to the fact that it wasn’t flashing initially but then started to flash randomly once it had seemingly approached the white orb. Steve has not specified whether the red orb stopped moving when it started flashing or not. If it did, then this would of course rule out an aeroplane. While red is obviously a normal navigation light colour on both planes and helicopters, it would usually be seen alongside other white and sometimes green lights, not just on its own.
A drone with red lights or red coloured LED balloon would be possibilities, but its unlikely either of these would start flashing in the manner observed. Therefore, there is a possibility that this sighting was something more anomalous.
August 2019 – White Orb
“One evening in late August 2019, I was out walking my dog with my wife on the A166 just outside of Wetwang, East Yorkshire at 2300 hours. I am quite a keen observer of the night sky and with the area being dark it was easy to see many many stars in the sky. While looking at the constellation of Cygnus, I noticed that there was a strange, dim point of light next to the star Vega which is close to Cygnus. The point of light was the same size as other stars in the sky but it was quite dim, bright enough to be able to see however. The point of light was randomly flashing at different speeds. None of the objects in the sky around it were flashing and no planets of the solar system were in that area of the sky at the time. My wife also saw this when I pointed it out to her and thought this was strange."
Stars/planets can sometimes seem to twinkle intermittently. However, as you can see, Steve appears to have a good knowledge of the night sky, and confirmed that there were no known stars/planets present at that position at the time of the incident.
There are a number of other possible explanations for what was seen though. A hovering high altitude helicopter, drone or white LED balloon fading in and out due to the distance cannot be ruled out.
27th July 2021 – Silhouetted Cigar
“On Tuesday 27th July 2021 at 17.15 hours, I was walking along the A166 through Wetwang on the north side of the road, and I was on the east edge of the village when I noticed a black silhouette in the sky. The object was visible through a gap in the tree line looking towards the south east area of the sky where I was standing.
“I would describe the object as moving very slowly through the sky heading north. It was a long thin object which was straight on the top and bottom and was curved at the ends, and it appeared to be above the former RAF East Kirkburn air base.”
“There were no wings, engines or tail fins visible on the object and it was not making any sound. I quickly turned my head to see if it was safe to cross the road to get a closer look, and when I looked back for the object it had disappeared completely. It was a fine summer evening and the cloud base was very high. I would estimate that the object was around 1.5 miles away and approximately 1000 feet up in the sky.”
If it wasn’t for the fact that the object suddenly vanished i I would have put this sighting down to a distant blimp which happened to be crossing the location of the old RAF base. Steve did not see any tail fins but blimp tail fins are not particularly prominent, and at a distance they can sometimes look like cigar-shaped craft.
However, if it was a blimp then it would not have vanished in a matter of seconds. As the witness states, it was a sunny day with no clouds in the vicinity of it, so it clearly had not disappeared behind a cloud. This aspect makes the sighting very intriguing. I have investigated quite a number of cases over the years where UFOs have suddenly vanished without trace when the witness briefly stopped looking at them.
Could this have been a daylight sighting of a genuine advanced craft? And if so was it aware that it was being observed, even from the distance Steve was at, and this is why it decided to leave the area or hide itself from view?
10th November 2021 – Silver-Grey UFO
“On Wednesday 10th November 2021 at 08:39 hours, I was driving along the B1248 from the direction of Wetwang towards Tibthorpe when I noticed directly in front of me in the sky a silvery grey coloured object moving slowly across the sky from right to left.”
“It was an overcast day and was raining slightly, and the object almost seemed to blend in with the background colour of the sky. I saw the object pass by the trees at either side of the road as I drove up the hill very close to Tibthorpe.”
“I accelerated up the hill to try and get a better view of the object as it went out of sight behind a tree on the left side of the road. In the few seconds it took me to get to the top of the hill, the object had disappeared. I would describe the shape of this object as being slightly bulbous at the front with a narrower body at the rear. No wings, engines, tail fin etc were visible on the object. The object must have been around a mile and a half to two miles away and seemed to follow the A614 towards the old RAF Driffield site travelling from West to East. I have dash cam footage of the section of the journey where this sighting was, however the sky is too bright for me to see anything on the footage. I noted also that there were lots of flocks of migrating birds heading in the opposite direction to the object (East to West), and after the object passed several flocks of those birds made a sharp turn to head North. During the rest of the day, there were several flocks of birds which seemed to have landed between Wetwang and the Old RAF Driffield site and they kept taking off to fly very low in large groups, but were going around in circles as if confused or disorientated.”
There’s not much known about the object that was seen on this occassion but like similar sightings the fact that the object vanished within the short space of time that it was out of direct line of sight tends to rule out the idea that it was a blimp or unusual inflatable drifting on air currents.
I find it unlikely that the observed activity of the flocks of birds both during and after the sighting had anything to do with the object. It was probably just coincidental that they seemed to be acting in an unusual manner.
1st and 3rd December 2021 – White Orbs
“At 17:48 hours on Friday 3/12/21, I observed a bright ball of light in the sky which was moving across the sky but very slowly, much slower than any aircraft or satellite I have ever witnessed.
It was initially heading from South West to North East in the sky above the fields between Middleton on the Wolds and Wetwang. As the object approached the edge of Wetwang on the south edge of the village, this ball of light performed a very slow half circle turn and began heading South before it disappeared out of sight behind thick clouds.”
“The object was not making any noise and I would guess it was about 2000 feet above the ground. The object was so bright that it was visible through the thinner clouds. It was not displaying anything like navigation lights. There were no traces of any aircraft in the area according to a well known flight tracking app. This is the second sighting of an unusual light in the sky in two days, and in almost the identical area.”
Other than its appearance, not much else is known about the object Steve saw on 1st December 2021. However, the fact that the orb he saw two days later made a change in direction rules out the possibility of it being a satellite.
The fact that he could not see any other navigation lights, and the fact that no aircraft were spotted on his flight tracking app (Probably Flight Radar 24) tends to suggest that it wasn’t an aeroplane or helicopter. However, this explanation cannot be entirely ruled out. Perhaps it was much higher than he assumed it was, so far away that the navigation lights all bled into one. Also it could have been an aircraft flying without its transponder on. There is no legal obligation to fly with this activated, and military aircraft often fly with this disengaged.
The object did not perform any advanced manoeuvres so there is also the possibility that it was a drone or a white coloured LED balloon.
14th December 2021 - Orange Lights
“On Tuesday 14th December 2021 at 05.15 hours, I was driving Southbound along the B1248 probably about halfway between the villages of Bainton and Lund. It was a misty morning and was still in darkness. I glanced over to my right (which would have been looking to the west) because I noticed that the sky was glowing white from the outside lights of a farm just on the other side of a gentle hill. Just next to the white glow of the farm lights I witnessed three orange coloured spheres of light, vertically stacked one above the other and just above the horizon.”
“It is difficult to tell how big those lights were as I do not know exactly how far away they were, but were large enough to be instantly noticed. The lights were stationary. I pass this location every day and this is the only time I have seen these lights at the location given.”
Due to the fact that Steve regularly drives past the location this sighting took place, it is unlikely that the orange lights were from a building on the horizon, as he would no doubt of seen them on other dates. However, there is the possibility that they were attached to some temporary equipment such as a crane or parked farming vehicle. This seems a far more likely probability to the lights being attached to a hovering craft.
1st January 2022 - Blue Orbs
“At 1730 hours on 1/1/2022, I was casually observing the night sky from my back garden in Wetwang when two points of blue light appeared from behind my house way up in the sky. The lights were similar in size to the surrounding stars. They appeared to be following each other closely and were heading from South to North. After passing overhead, they then disappeared from view. They were both just a steady blue colour, no other coloured lights were seen on the objects. Then, at 1738 hours on the same date, another point of blue light was observed heading along the same track from South to North; however this light was randomly flashing. Again there were no other lights visible on the object such as navigation lights. This point of light also disappeared after passing overhead.
Finally, at 1745 hours on the same date, a helicopter was heard and seen passing very low over Wetwang heading from North to South and was following the B1248 towards Tibthorpe before going out of sight. A well known flight tracking app was checked immediately and there were no aircraft showing anywhere even close to the area at that time. I surmise that this was a military helicopter due to the noise and navigation lights it was displaying (bright white and bright red steady lights) although I am not able to confirm this.”
The colour of the orbs on this occasion rules out a number of possibilities. They could not have been distant aircraft or helicopters as navigation lights on both are white, red and green, never blue:
The fact that nothing showed up on Steve’s flight tracking app also points away from this explanation. They could not have been satellites in orbit as these are white, nor could they have been sky lanterns as these glow an amber orange colour.
However, a couple of possibilities which cannot be ruled out is that the orbs were blue coloured LED balloons drifting on an air current, or drones (potentially on the way to a show). I feel that the first of these explanations is more likely, especially considering it was New Years Day. They could well have been launched from a nearby celebration. Perhaps the one orb which was intermittently flashing and finally disappeared was higher up and moving in and out of visibility as it moved across the sky.
It is unlikely that the helicopter Steve noticed 15 minutes later had anything to do with the orbs. It was travelling in the opposite direction so did not appear to be chasing or attempting to intercept anything. As Steve points out, he cannot confirm that it was even military, it could just as easily have been a civilian or police helicopter.
29th January 2022 – Orange Orb
“At 2107 hours on the 29th January 2022 I was working from my works van. I glanced up to the night sky as it was a very clear night and I immediately observed a ball of orange light moving across the sky. The ball of light appeared to be above the A170 heading out of Thirsk in North Yorkshire towards a village called Sutton under Whitestonecliffe.”
“Only a few seconds after I noticed this, it dimmed out and completely disappeared from view. It was very quiet where I was working and this light was not making any sound and there were no other lights on display attached to this ball of light.”
The most likely explanation for this sighting is that the object was a sky lantern due to its colour, the lack of any advanced or intelligent manoeuvres and way in which it dimmed and disappeared. Lanterns only stay lit for a number of minutes after which they burn out which usually looks like they have vanished as it is no longer possible to see them against the night sky.
17th April 2022 – Blue-White & Warm White Orbs
“At 2206 hours on Sunday 17th April 2022, I let my dog out into the back garden and immediately on stepping outside my attention was drawn to a bright flashing pinhead of blue white light in the sky.
I stood and observed this light which was flashing randomly and to varying degrees of brightness each time, from very bright to quite feint. I counted how many times it flashed which was 7 times before disappearing. It was static initially and then seemed to start moving very slowly, travelling from the direction of West North West towards South South East. Another pinhead of flashing blue white light then caught my eye in a different part of the sky overhead, this was moving very slowly and flashed slowly and randomly and again to different levels of brightness. This light was moving from South to North and as it moved I counted it flash at least 13 times before it ended up disappearing behind a line of trees. This second flashing light was accompanied only a matter of seconds later by a very tight cluster of two or three warm white coloured lights which were steady and did not flash, heading along the same track. I live in a very quiet rural area and none of these lights were accompanied by any sound, or other lights such as navigation lights. They were just pinheads of light similar in size to the visible celestial objects in the sky to the naked eye. There were no visible condensation trails and there were no aircraft registered as being in the area according to one of the well known flight tracking applications. The first light appeared from the approximate area over Fridaythorpe, East Yorkshire heading generally towards Wetwang, and the second light along with the small cluster of lights appeared over Wetwang heading generally towards Sledmere.”
Aerial map indicating approximate location and path of the initial orb:
Aerial map indicating approximate location and path of the other orbs:
I did wonder whether one of the blue-white orbs may have been the ISS. I asked Chat GPT to confirm the position of the ISS at 10:06pm on 17th April 2022. Below is the response:
While the direction would have loosely matched the direction of the first orb, the AI suggests that it would have appeared as a non-blinking bright white point of light, not a flashing blue-white light. Also this would not account for the other orbs, including one which looked the same as the first, so this seems unlikely.
None of the orbs performed manoeuvres which would indicate they were anything advanced or under intelligent control. As with some of Steve’s previous sightings, distant aircraft, drones or drifting LED balloons cannot be ruled out.
20th August 2022 - Black L-Shaped UFOs, Pale Blue and Orange Orbs
“On the afternoon of Saturday 20th August 2022, I was sat out in my garden on the patio as it was a nice clear sunny day. At 1852 hours I glanced up into the sky and immediately saw a black ‘L’ shaped object moving through the sky, heading from the north towards the south. As the object came overhead, I ran down to the end of my garden so that I could keep the object under observation and when I looked back up at it as it was heading away there were now three ‘L’ shaped black coloured objects heading in the same direction towards the south. This startled me because initially there was only one that was visible. I noticed that one of the objects had a bright silver metallic back on it. The objects were moving quite quickly and I would suggest they were at a height of about 1500-2000 feet. There were no visible lights or exhaust trails or anything of that kind from the objects and they were perfectly silent. Later on that evening I decided to observe the night sky as it was a clear night. I observe quite often and use a pair of high quality Steiner 7x50 binoculars to do this. The first object I viewed at 2154 hours was Vega near to the constellation of Cygnus the swan. As I observed through the binoculars, I saw dozens and dozens of pale blue and pale orange lights track past Vega, on two distinct separate tracks which were very close to each other. Literally these pale lights were seen one after the other, some were less than a second apart and were moving very fast across the night sky from west to east. I was not able to keep an accurate count as there were so many. Some of these lights overtook each other. I observed all of these lights passing by constantly for just over an hour before fatigue set into my arms and I had to stop observing at 2255 hours, cloud coverage had also began. In the 40 years of observing the night sky I have never seen so many objects moving through the sky in one particular place. I did question whether these could be Starlink satellites however these lights were very feint and only visible through the binoculars and not the naked eye. It seemed that there were just too many lights for too long to be disregarded as simply two lines of Starlink satellites. It was also noted that there was a military transport plane in the area at the time of observation, which was a USAF C17 Mk III Globemaster.”
This incident is made up of two distinctly separate sightings which do not appear to be related to one another and just happened to occur within hours of one another.
The black and silver L-shaped UFOs which were witnessed in the early evening were clearly not normal aircraft due to their unusual appearance. Steve states that they were moving fast, but seemingly did not perform any movements which would indicate they were under intelligent control. I feel that the most likely explanation for them was several novelty balloons drifting on air currents.
Regarding the lines of orbs he witnessed later on, online sources confirm that there was a Starlink satellites launch on 20th August 2022. Here is an example news report about the launch:
Due to the regularity of the lights in the second sighting in terms of their appearance and path I feel that Steve is mistaken, and that it was the launch he was witnessing. When Starlink satellites are first launched they are moved around using jets, which accounts for the fact that some of the lights were travelling at a faster pace and catching up with other ones.
4th November 2022 - Yellow and Pale Blue Orbs
“At 2101 hours on Friday 4th November 2022 I had just let my dog out into the back garden. My attention was drawn initially to a bright yellow ball of light moving extremely slowly through the night sky, and then I noticed a very pale blue light that was following very closely behind and off to one side. I saw these lights for about five seconds before the pale blue light suddenly disappeared and the bright yellow light faded right down. It also disappeared a couple of seconds later. These odd lights were travelling from the direction of Fimber towards Sledmere, from West to East. I live in a very quiet rural area, and those lights did not appear to be from any human activity. There was no sound coming from them, and they were very high up from the earth's surface.”
As the colour of these orbs does not match normal navigation lights this tends to rule out the idea that they were distant planes or helicopters. They were also the wrong colour for sky lanterns. However, they could well have been a couple of LED balloons, which seemed to disappear because they moved out of visual range. Drones would also be possible but the continuous very slow movement across the sky seems more likely to be inflatables drifting on an air current. Drones tend to hover still and dart from one position to another for periods of time.
29th November 2022 – Big Cat/Dog Sighting
“Myself and my wife were on our way to Malton on the evening of 01/12/2022 to have a meal, and while in the car during general chit chat my wife said to me suddenly ‘Oh I forgot to tell you because you were at work, on Tuesday night (29/11/2022) when I was driving home I saw a black thing!’ When I asked her to tell me what she meant, she said she was driving along the B1248 having just negotiated the Fimber roundabout, heading towards the A166 from the general direction of Malton, she told me she saw a jet black coloured creature leap out from the entrance to the small biker’s cafe on the right and cross the road.”
“Whatever this was disappeared into a gap in the hedge opposite on the left just before you get to the Yorkshire Wolds Railway site. She said she has no idea what this creature was but had the form and movement of a small bear, much larger than a cat or dog and as stated was jet black in colour and it had a long tail. It ran off on its four legs. That's about as much as she was able to tell me other than the time was around 1840 hours.”
This is a very interesting sighting of a possible large panther-like cat. The witness says that it was the size of a small bear, which tends to suggest that it wasn’t a domestic cat or dog. The long tail also points towards it being a big cat, as this is one of their most distinguishing features. As she only glimpsed the creature for a moment a large domestic cat or dog cannot be entirely ruled out, but it is widely suspected by many that panthers are breeding in the wild and exist in small numbers at various places around the UK.
6th December 2022 - White Lights
“I was driving Eastbound along the A166 just approaching Wetwang from the direction of Fridaythorpe at 1806 hours on Tuesday 6th December 2022 when I noticed high up in the Eastern sky in front of me two very bright white lights traversing around each other.”
“The two lights were flashing randomly, and then began to move off away from each other, one heading south and the other heading north before I lost sight of them due to trees, buildings and bright road lighting. Those lights appeared to be way out high over the North Sea probably somewhere between Skipsea and Fraisthorpe.
“I checked one of the well known flight tracking apps but there were no aircraft showing to be in that area at the time.”
The lights that Steve saw did not perform any advanced manoeuvres. The most likely explanation for them would be distant aeroplanes or helicopters out over the sea. The intermittent flashing was probably caused by a combination of them moving in and out of visual range and strobe navigation lights. The fact that they did not show up on the flight tracking app does not rule out the idea that they were aircraft, they may have just had their transponders switched off at the time, as previously mentioned in this report.
13th February 2023 – Big Cat/Dog Sighting
“I was travelling in my works van on 13/02/2023 at 16.55 hours heading to a job in Leeds. I was with a work colleague and we were driving down a road called Wike Ridge Lane just approaching the Shadwell area of Leeds.”
I saw that there were some open fields with short grass growing in them with perimeter hedges, to our left just before getting to the beginning of where there are a few houses on the outskirts of Shadwell (north east Leeds). I happened to glance over into those fields and to my amazement I got a sighting of a large four legged creature walking slowly across one of the fields probably about 300 metres away from the road.”
"There were no persons or other animals in any of these large fields. It was very light outside as the sun had not yet gone down below the horizon. The sky was clear. It was dry but cold outside. I would describe the animal that I saw as being jet black in colour and being much larger than a dog, but seemed unlike a dog in some respects and more like a cross between a wolf and feline type animal as it had a large, straight bushy tail which pointed diagonally downwards and also quite large pointed ears. It had medium length fur I would say. It walked in a very sleek fashion of movement and appeared that it probably could run very quickly if needed. Unfortunately, and most disappointingly we were not able to stop our vehicle safely and get an image as the road was a national speed limit carriageway and there was traffic behind us. I remember telling my colleague who was driving what I had just seen and commenting on the fact that the local farmers might be a bit worried if they had any livestock about. I have never witnessed anything like this creature before and I must admit I was quite shocked to see such an unusual animal just walking through a large open field with nobody else around.”
It appears that Steve’s wife is not the only one who has had a potential big cat sighting. From Steve’s description it is not really certain whether the creature he saw was a large feline or large canine. It is very unlikely to have been a genuine feline-canine cross breed as this would not be possible. However, the black colour, long pointed ears and sleek movement observed suggest that this may have been a sighting of a large wild cat of some kind.
It is a shame that Steve was unable to park the car and get a photograph/video of the animal, as this would have aided greatly in determining its origin.
1st May 2023 – Glowing Gold UFO
“In early May 2023 I had a very interesting conversation with my mother. I rang her to see if she wanted to be taken for her weekly shopping. During the call, here is what she said to me in her own words without any prompting or conversation about the subject beforehand; ‘I’ve got something to tell you Steve, you’re not going to believe this. On Monday (1st May 2023) at twenty to ten in the evening I had just gone to lay down in my bed when I heard quite a loud noise. It was like an aircraft type noise but not a quiet one. It was like a loud, low droning noise. I got up and went to look out of my back living room window and saw this really big gold glittering light between two of the houses opposite my back garden. I stood and watched this for a few seconds and it then shot off (she described the direction which sounds to me like heading from west hull towards an easterly direction, towards the east coast of the UK). It didn’t have any flashing lights on it, but it had very small little wings poking out like an airplane but very small ones. It was hovering between the houses before shooting off fast. It didn’t have any windows. It was a lot like the other thing I saw a few years ago.’
“My mother lives just on a quiet close knit street just off Pickering Road near to the Costello Playing Fields in Hull, East Yorkshire, not far from the Spring Bank area where there have been a good few sightings over the years.”
This is an intriguing sighting of an unusual aerial object. In early May in the UK the sun sets about 8:30pm. The fact that it initially appeared as a large golden-coloured glittering light and that the sun had set by the time of the sighting means that it must have been self-luminescent instead of reflecting sunlight.
From the drawing Steve’s mum did it can be seen that the UFO appeared to be domed-disc shaped. What she describes as “short wings” may have been the outer edges of a wider central rim around the object.
If it really was an advanced craft then this would explain how it was able to hover motionless before suddenly flying away at a fast speed. However, the possibility that this was an unusual shaped drone or remote controlled model cannot be entirely ruled out.
6th May 2023 – Gold Orbs
“I was not long since travelling home from work at 0026 hours on the early morning of Saturday 6th May 2023, driving steadily along the B1248 probably half way between Wharram Le Street and the turn off on the left for Towthorpe. I was driving towards Fimber roundabout (heading generally south). This part of the road is the highest in the area for some miles.”
“For some reason unknown, I glanced over to my right and looked west and was surprised to see a bright gold ball of light moving about very slowly just above the horizon. This immediately caught my attention so I stopped my car in a safe place and rolled my driver’s window down to get a better view. Suddenly, furthering my surprise, I then saw a second gold light appear to the right of the first one, this was dimmer but was moving along above the horizon a bit quicker than the other light and was slightly higher. This second light appeared to be heading north. I would estimate that those two lights were somewhere between Strensall and Sheriff Hutton, north of York, however as always these things can be difficult to judge at night. I took my mobile phone out of my pocket and just about managed to get a photo of the first brighter light I saw. I also took a short video but it is very blared as I could not get the camera to focus.”
Video footage of one of the orbs:
“A few seconds after I started filming, both lights disappeared so I put my phone down. The lights then reappeared, and continued to move slowly. They disappeared again, before the brighter light again appeared and then disappeared. The weather at the time was mostly clear but with patches of cloud and fog. The moon was bright in the sky. There was no wind and the temperature was 7 Celsius. I checked one of the well know flight tracking apps at the time of the sighting, the only one aircraft recorded over the York area was 30000 feet up in the sky, nowhere near the horizon!”
It is interesting that Steve describes the orbs he saw as gold in colouration, as the one captured on video (albeit extremely blurred) appears more amber orange. To illustrate this point, here is a still of the orb, taken within the first second of the brief footage:
Here is a zoomed view of the orb:
Even though the orb is only visible for a couple of seconds, the brightness does appear to be flickering. Both this and the colour point towards the orbs being a couple of sky lanterns which had been launched from a nearby celebration. Neither of them performed advanced manoeuvres, and they could easily have been drifting on an air current, one slightly faster than the other.
The fact that the orbs were disappearing and re-appearing could have been down to their distance from the witness. Nothing showed up for them on the flight tracking app either, suggesting they were not distant aircraft.
8th July 2023 - Red Lights
“Tuesday 18th July 2023, 2345 Hours. I was driving southbound along the B1248 having come out of the village of North Grimston heading towards the next village of Wharram Le Street, North Yorkshire. This part of the road ascends quite steeply and there are some quite tight bends in the road. I had just gone around a left hand bend going up the hill where there is a coppice of trees on the right hand side going up the hill.”
“I noticed just on exiting the bend on the right of my car four large pale fuzzy round red lights 'parked' in the middle of the coppice of trees.”
“I was not able to make out any shape as the area is very dark at night and there are no street lights on this road. It was not a vehicle that had come off the road, as it is a solid line of thick trees and none had been knocked over or disturbed. I have no idea what this was, but the lights were not clearly defined light vehicle lights would normally be. There are no houses or buildings anywhere near this location, it is well out into the countryside.”
It is unclear why Steve did not stop his vehicle to continue to observe the orbs. As they were low down it seems unlikely that they were aircraft being viewed in the sky beyond the treeline. Also no white or green lights were observed, only red.
Steve is correct that there are no buildings nearby, this can be seen on the aerial map. However, it is possible that the red lights were coming from farming equipment either within or beyond the trees. They were low down and did not move at all, increasing the chance that this is what was observed.
29th July 2023 – Green Orb
“Saturday 29th July 2023, 2350 hours. I was almost in the same place as the above sighting, but on a straighter piece of road with low hedges on both sides, heading in the same direction as above. There was gap that appeared in the hedges on my right hand side where the farmers drive their machinery onto the fields.”
“I noticed behind the hedge that there was a strange transparent ball of dim green coloured illumination just next to the gap in the hedge. The ball was just hovering about half a metre off the ground, and was not making any noise from what I could hear in my car. It was not a perfect ball of illumination. It actually reminded me of the body of Slimer from the first Ghostbusters film in the 80's! I would estimate it was about a metre in diameter.”
This was a more intriguing sighting than Steve’s previous encounter on the same road, as on this occasion the object appeared to be freely visible rather than shining from within vegetation. While a green light on distant farming equipment cannot be ruled out, there is also the possibility that it was something more anomalous. There is a chance that the object was an earth light (will-o-wisp). Although rare, these are more commonly sighted in rural locations.
Conclusions
As you can see Steve and his family have had a huge amount of sightings over the years of both UFOs and possible big cats/dogs. Regarding the UFO sightings, the majority of them are orbs of various colours. Most of them did not perform advanced manoeuvres or display aspects which cannot be put down to mundane explanations.
One of the most intriguing sightings Steve had was the first one he reported to me from October 2009 due to the zig-zag movement pattern observed. His mother’s sighting of the glowing golden domed-disc shaped object was also interesting due to its appearance and flight characteristics.
The two big feline/canine sightings are both harder to explain and could well have been what they appeared to be, although in both instances the animal was only seen for a short period of time and not captured on camera.
Despite many of Steve’s sightings potentially having mundane explanations, there is still the chance that some of them may have been distant advanced craft, and I am pleased that he sent me the details to get down on record. If he gets back in touch further information on these incidents may well be added.
Copyright Dave Hodrien 2026
Comments