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Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Year: 2024 Last Updated: 08/10/2026 In February 2024 I was contacted by Paul Humphries from Druids Heath, Birmingham to discuss our planned summer-time camping trip to Rendlesham Forest. During our conversation he also mentioned that he had had two UFO sightings over recent years. This report covers details of the second sighting, which he believes he may have captured on camera. Sighting Details At 8.55pm on 23rd May 2023 Paul was in the living room of his house on Mannifold Road. It was a beautiful sunny evening, and due to the time of year there was still a lot of light in the sky. Aerial map of Manningford Road He looked out of the front window and noticed some picturesque plane contrails to the West. He decided to take a photograph of them on his smartphone. He then noticed something else in the sky off to his left. At an elevation of about 35 degrees he saw a dark coloured unusual-shaped object. It did not appear particularly large in size, perhaps 4 feet across. It seemed to be at an altitude of between 200-300 feet and over the houses towards the bottom end of the nearby estate, certainly within a mile of his location. Photograph from Manningford Road in the direction the UFO was seen The object had curved edges but it was hard to see its precise shape. It was moving slowly to the North on a straight path. As it moved it seemed to fade in and out of view. He did not think about attempting to photograph it, he was too busy watching. After about 10 seconds it faded out and vanished from sight. Paul was surprised at what he had just seen. He waited to see if it would re-appear but it did not. The following month he was showing a friend the picture he had taken of the contrails. He then noticed a dark object towards the upper left of the image: At first he thought it must be dirt on the photograph, but after zooming in believes that he had unwittingly managed to capture the object he saw. Photograph Analysis Below is the picture Paul took of the contrails, with the dark object ringed in red: Here is a zoomed view of the object: Here is a zoomed view of the object with edge find: I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the photograph, but in order to confirm this I decided to perform metadata analysis of the image. Metadata is a lot of hidden information which exists behind photographic images. When images are tampered with using image editing software, some of the metadata changes. Examination of the metadata can confirm whether or not any manipulation has taken place. Below is the extracted metadata with important values highlighted: Camera Info, Creator Software, Make, Model and Software confirm that the photo was taken on a Samsung SM-G977B smartphone and has not been modified using image editing software. The TimeStamp, CreateDate and ModifyDate confirm that the photo was taken at 8:55pm on 23rd May 2023. Although it is possible to modify metadata, most people do not even know metadata exists, let alone that it is possible to modify it. The object captured looks nothing like a distant aircraft or helicopter, and Flight Radar 24 confirms that there were no tracked aircraft in the vicinity at the time: At the distance it appeared to be at, if the object captured was a drone then I’d expect more obvious structure would be visible. The possibility of it being a novelty balloon partially sillouetted against the sky cannot be ruled out. However there is another possibility that seems even more probable. Could the “object” actually be just a smudge of dirt on the glass which Paul did not notice at the time? In addition to the area of interest, there are other less pronounced dirt smudges elsewhere on the window, as indicated below: I did ask Paul to send me a new photograph of the window but he is yet to do so. And it is of course possible that he has washed the window since the date of the incident so this will not necessarily disprove this theory. Conclusion The object which Paul reported seeing remains anomalous. Due to the fact there were no tracked aircraft in the area at the time, the apparent small size of the object, and the observed manouvers, I feel that it may potentially have been a drifting balloon just on the edge of visible range. This would have led to it seeming to fade in and out and finally vanishing entirely, just as was reported. It is impossible to confirm whether or not the dark shape in the photograph is the object Paul saw with his naked eye or not. It is impossible to tell from the photograph exactly how far from the camera it is, and due to the presence of dirt smudges at other parts of the window there is certainly the possibility that the “object” is also dirt on the glass, and it was just the similar positioning which led Paul to believe it was the object he had seen. At present this seems the most probable explanation for the photo, although it obviously doesn’t explain what Paul actually witnessed. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2026

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 09/05/2022 Last Updated: 05/10/2026 In March 2022 I decided it was time to organise another sky watch, as it had been a good while since we’d held one. Our original destination was Barr Beacon in Walsall, but after discussing the event with Nath and Luna Lockley it was discovered that they had also organised a sky watch for their group UPRISING UFO & Paranormal Investigation at Cannock Chase on exactly the same night! We decided that rather than hold two sky watches on the same night at different locations it would make the most sense for us to join forces. And so it was that on the evening of 30th April 2022 many members of both BUFOG and UPRISING all headed out to Cannock Chase for a joint sky watch! The chosen location for the watch was an open area of land just North East of the War Cemetery, and West of the German Military Cemetery in Brockton. We initially met up at Aspen Car Park, before making our way along the path to the South East to reach our base of operations. The first couple of hours went by really fast. Camp chairs were set out. Snacks were distributed. Nath and Luna held a very extensive raffle. I went over some local UFO sightings that had taken place over the years, including some I’d directly investigated. Nath then did the same for ghostly incidents. The chosen location for the sky watch Aerial map showing the sky watch location (A), Aspen Car Park (B) and the two cemeteries (C & D) At about 10.15pm many of the sky watchers, myself included, decided to have a walk down to the borders of Cannock Chase War Cemetery. By this time the sun had fully set. It was overcast, with no stars visible in the sky, but was dry and extremely still. Others stayed behind to continue to socialise and watch the (admittedly cloud-covered) sky. The sky watch in progress after dark Between 10.30 - 10.45pm numerous people who had remained at the field witnessed an orange orb of light in the sky. Interestingly there are a number of discrepancies in their accounts including the direction, manoeuvres the object performed and time it occurred. The initial witness to report the incident to me was Catherine who was present on the watch with her husband Mark. I found out about it in discussion with her on the following day. By the time we had returned from the walk to the cemetery Catherine had already left, and the remaining witnesses did not mention it to me on the night. Catherine stated the following about the incident: “I did see an orange glowing light. It looked to be falling quickly in an arc behind or in the trees in the direction you'd gone off on the walk. So wondered if it was something to do with that? By the time I'd gone 'oh' Mark looked but there was no sign of it. I heard people behind me discuss it too.” I asked her whether she thought a meteorite (shooting star) could have been responsible, to which she replied: “I've only ever seen white, tiny ones before. This was bigger, and definitely appeared orange. It could have been something huge miles away, or smaller and nearer.” Mock up of the orange orb The orb was also witnessed by BUFOG Investigator James Brodie and his friend Ian. Here is James’ more detailed written statement about what took place: “About 10.25pm I was looking up at the sky. We had the forest to our right. If you looked directly ahead, you would come to the path which would take you to the car park to the left. I was scanning the sky, and I noticed a couple of small pinpricks of light. When I first saw the small lights, I assumed that it may have been drizzle illuminated from the ground light into the sky, which would give an initial impression of the light being in the sky, rather than the drizzle simply being illuminated as it fell. I spoke with my colleague and asked whether he had noticed anything else in the sky and he thought he had seen a couple of small lights in the sky. However, I couldn’t rule out the possibility of auto-suggestion from myself and then my friend simply witnessing the same phenomena. Another 5-10 min passed and my friend and I both saw an orange luminous light in the sky. It appeared to be quite high in the sky and it appeared to blink in and blink out. We watched the sky and were trying to understand whether it was being obscured by the cloud, as there was heavy cloud cover at the time. From my recollection, the light appeared to rapidly change direction in the sky before disappearing. When discussing this with my colleague, he suggested that it may be cloud cover obscuring its movement, however, I felt it had quite quickly changed direction. We both have apps on our phones which let us know in real-time whether there is anything in the sky. We were both able to confirm there were no flights in the area and this was backed up when later we saw another low moving light which we were able to confirm was a commercial flight. I was aware on that night that there was the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter which would both appear as bright stars. Neither were visible due to the cloud cover and would have been the wrong colour. The light or orb itself was fully luminous and was bright orange in colour. To the naked eye it appeared to be a few inches in size, but it was difficult to estimate what its actual size was relative to its height in the sky. There was no associated noise or visible markings. We did not experience any electromagnetic interference. One other point of note which may or may not be relevant is that at the time of the sighting I had been ‘asking out’. That is to say quietly in my mind, is anything out there? Will you show yourself? When I spoke to a couple of people I was aware that they had been doing the same thing (but that was independent of each other). We felt we could discount any possible ground illumination as there were no other light sources or street lights in that area in the direction we were observing. We can discount the object as anything like a Chinese lantern due to a change in direction and there was little wind at the time. We can also discount the international space station as it wasn’t in the vicinity of the time. Another possible suggestion could be ball lightning, but again that seems unlikely due to the perceived change in direction. I then remarked to another member of the sky watch team, Rachel, that we may have seen something. Who I believe then went on to the see light in her own right.” I spoke with Rachel, a regular attendee of Birmingham UFO Group. She sent the following written statement about the incident: “I was sitting on my chair looking in the direction of the cemetery as I was watching the lights of the torches as you guys were walking to the cemetery. I then heard James and Ian talking about seeing something orange although I can't remember exactly what they said. I then turned 180 so the car park was on my left and the path we had walked to get to our site was in front of me running left to right (and the cemetery was behind my right side). I moved to see what they were referring to and I then saw an orange orb shaped light floating. It was in the direction of the break in the tree line where I could see lights from a nearby residential area but the orb was much brighter and closer than the distant lights I could see. The orb was to the right hand side just before the treeline started again. I stood up to look at it for a few minutes and saw it appear to glow slightly brighter it seemed to have a darker centre and slightly lighter around the edge then it just faded out quickly and it was gone. There was no sound and I didn't see any movement only the fading. Not long after someone shouted about a white light coming from the opposite direction. Me, Ian and James were all standing as we had started to chat about what we saw and James said to Ian to check his app to see what the white light was as there was no noise however as it got closer we heard it and Ian then told me that it was a plane as shown on his flight radar app. I'm not sure of the time of that flight exactly but seeing the orb must have been between about 10.30pm and 10.45pm as I was sending texts to Amanda about the apps and points that Ian and James were telling me about so I wouldn't forget them. My texts started at 10.46pm.” As you can see, there are numerous discrepancies between the three different accounts. The most obvious of these is the direction the orb was seen in. Catherine stated that the object had been seen to the South in the direction of the cemetery. She provided the following photographic overlay which shows two possible positions it was situated over the tree line, and its trajectory: However it is clear from both their initial statements and later discussion that both James and Rachel believe that the orb was situated to the North East at the right of the gap between the trees. The below photograph I took on the night shows this gap: I contacted Catherine to discuss this discrepancy with her. She confirmed that it was definitely slightly to the right from where she was sat. Aerial map showing the directions the witnesses claim the orb was situated (Green = Catherine, Yellow = James & Rachel) Next it is apparent that the witnesses who provided statements all remember seeing the orb perform different manoeuvres. Catherine saw it appear and immediately perform a sharp angled descent in an arc and vanish from sight (as can be seen on the photographic overlay). James recalls it performing darting manoeuvres for a number of seconds. Rachel remembers it being stationary and just dimming after a period of time. While it is possible that Rachel merely didn’t notice the erratic movements, the sharp descent which Catherine witnessed seems wildly different. Lastly, both James and Rachel recall seeing the orb prior to the appearance of the commercial aircraft which Ian tracked on Flight Radar 24 mobile phone app (I also tracked this same flight using the app while down the cemetery. As expected it looked like a glowing white light until it got close enough to see the other navigation lights, nothing like the orange orb which was witnessed). In speaking with Catherine, she remembers overhearing James, Ian and Rachel discussing the plane before she saw the orange orb to the South, implying that it was a separate sighting not the same incident. I feel that all of these discrepancies are enough to propose that one of two things took place. Either the orb was seen by James and Rachel to the North East, it then vanished for a period of time, before re-appearing briefly to the South and descending rapidly. Or there were two completely separate objects that just happened to have a similar appearance to one another and were both seen within a similar period of time. So what could the orb/orbs have been? While they had the colour of a sky lantern, I would agree with James that it very improbable this was the explanation. Lanterns tend to drift very slowly on a slow course. They can sometimes waver, or get buffeted around by air currents, but it was an extremely still night, so a lantern would have floated very gradually and performed no sudden fast movements. The downward arc which Catherine observed would definitely not fit in with a lantern in still weather conditions. While lanterns do fall to the ground when they go out, by this point they would no longer be glowing. The object which James, Ian and Rachel observed was definitely not a tracked commercial or private aircraft, as this was confirmed using Flight Radar 24. 360 radar confirms that the area is not within any airways: It also confirms that the area lies within controlled airspace: These two aspects greatly reduce the possibility of the orb(s) being untracked aircraft. These aspects aside, the appearance and noted sudden movements also make it extremely unlikely for any of the sightings to have been a distant aircraft. While it could be argued that it would possible for a drone to perform such manoeuvres, James feels that the movements were too rapid, and he owns a drone himself so is very familiar with what they are capable of. Drones also tend to have bright red or white lights on them, not orange. It was also extremely quiet at the location with very little noise pollution, so a drone would likely have been audible, even at a distance. It seems obvious that the object or objects were only present in the sky for a brief period of time. From the statements provided it is clear that the orb(s) appeared only briefly before vanishing. Although an orange-coloured meteorite could potentially have explained the orange light which Catherine saw, it would not be able to perform the sharp darting manoeuvres which were observed by James and Ian or stationary hovering reported by Rachel. This short length of time is also the main reason why no photographs or video footage was taken. Obviously some people on the watch had either smartphones or cameras with them. But by the time the witnesses would have even thought about capturing the object on camera it had vanished from sight. If it had remained for a more extended period of time then we may have had some footage to examine. While earth lights can sometimes be orange in colour, they are not known to appear in the vicinity, and tend to drift slowly. Ball lightning tends to be white or blue-white in colour, and would only appear in stormy weather conditions, so cannot be the explanation. Here are James’ conclusions on what took place: “When there are a group of people together, ‘willing’ to share a group experience especially if they are inexperienced, there is a danger that there can be a group hallucination where people feed off the story or reaction of one another. However, we don’t believe this is the case in this instance. I only spoke to Rachel and it wasn’t until most of the group had left, that people had independently reported seeing an orange light. I can confidently discount any astronomical influence due to the cloud cover. I can also discount any commercial flights as there weren’t any at the time. What also discounts it is a drone or Chinese lantern was the unusual movement pattern. The luminosity of the object was also interesting as it was self-lit and very bright. Planes and drones tend to have flashing lights and this light was solid. On the above basis, I believe this to be an Unidentified Ariel Phenomenon and will require further investigation. What gives this an edge is that multiple people saw it independent from one another.” Looking at mundane explanations, I feel that a deliberate hoax like a silent flare seems the most probable. The sky watch was advertised online and on West Midlands radio, so it is conceivable that someone may have headed to the area intentionally to trick the sky watchers. However even this explanation comes with multiple issues. Firstly the two locations the orb was observed were quite far apart from one another, yet the sightings seemed to only happen minutes apart. Unless there were numerous groups of people individually launching flares at different locations, it seems unlikely that those responsible would have been able to move between the locations quickly enough. Even then, flares tend to drift slowly down to the ground over a number of seconds, they do not perform erratic manoeuvres or descend rapidly. It was also extremely quiet at the location and nobody else was seen or heard in the vicinity. A parked car was observed alongside the cemetery, and obviously it would be possible for someone to sneak around the outskirts and purposely launch fireworks or flares to trick those present on the sky watch, it genuinely felt like we were on our own out there. With most mundane explanations not fitting what was observed, and remaining possibilities impossible to verify, technically the object or objects remain a mystery… one or multiple UFOs observed during a UFO sky watch! This is not the only time we have observed activity on one of our sky watches. In September 2026 we visited Clent Hills, and five independent witnesses reported seeing red orbs in our vicinity. A photograph was also taken which may show one of these orbs. Click here for the separate report on this incident. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2026

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 01/10/2026 Last Updated: 05/10/2026 Introduction On the evening of 19th September BUFOG headed to Adams Hill in the Clent Hills for a sky watch. We met at the parking area at the base of the hill at 7pm before making our ascent. Initially there were twelve of us present, including regular BUFOG meeting attendees Rachel Wassall-Lawrence and Ronald Sanchez, and BUFOG Investigator James Brodie, with others scheduled to arrive a little later. Aerial map of Adam's Hill parking area Photograph of Adam’s Hill parking area We began heading up the trail that leads to the summit of Adam’s Hill. It was a dry but breezy evening, with partial high altitude cloud cover. On the way up we witnessed an absolutely stunning sunset. Photograph of us beginning our ascent Photograph of the sunset on the way up By around 7:20pm we reached a flattened area with a low semi-circular wall displaying a number of metal plaques that indicate various towns and landmarks visible in different directions. Even though this wasn’t right at the summit it seemed the perfect place to set up for the watch. There was great visibility of the sky in most directions, with a wonderful view of the surrounding area from the North West to the South. Aerial map indicating our route to the sky watch location Aerial map of the sky watch location Daylight photograph of the plaques Later on we were joined by a number of others, including BUFOG regulars Nicola and Lawrence Hession-Kent, researcher and podcaster Andy Booth and his friend Dan Dunford. The Sightings Around 9pm I was preparing to read out details of a number of UFO sightings I’d previously investigated from the surrounding area, going right back to 2007, the year Birmingham UFO Group was formed. The initial witness I spoke with in depth about what took place was Nicola. As there was no space on the grass she and Lawrence had set up their chairs on the other side of the wall within the semi-circle of flattened ground where the metal plaques are situated. Nicola was looking round to her left in a Southerly direction at Lawrence as he went through his bag. Behind them to the South East on the path stood James. Dan was sat on the wall facing North West, Andy standing near the outer edge of the wall facing South East. Nicola suddenly saw something red reflecting in the left corner of glasses. She moved head a bit and the reflection remained. Photograph in the direction Nicola was initially looking Thinking it might be James holding a red coloured torch she swiftly looked round (so fast that it nearly sprained her neck)! She was puzzled to see that he had no torch on. She did not mention what she had just seen to anyone, and her attention was drawn by Lawrence shortly afterwards. Photograph in the direction James was standing I began my talk, discussing various UFOs that had been seen in different directions from the hills. Photograph of me giving my sightings talk Around 9.15pm I was just wrapping up my talk when Andy shouted out he and Dan had just witnessed a red orb emerge from the trees alongside the path, fly behind Nicola and Lawrence's chairs and seemingly vanish into the wall of plaques! Here is Andy’s testimony regarding what happened: “I was stood chatting with Dan. From corner of my eye I saw something come round and down. It wasn’t until it was waist height till I turned to look at it. It was a small orb, no bigger than a 5 pence piece or fingernail. It was red in the centre and more orangey around the outside. It came down in a diagonal line and seemed to vanish into the wall. Dan saw it too. We thought there was someone with a laser pointer but nobody had one. The only laser pointers people were using were green.” Here is Dan’s testimony detailing what he saw: "I was initially looking towards you doing talk. It was about 9:15pm near the end of your talk. Lawrence was putting his jacket on, I briefly looked at him. I saw orangey red orb come flying past him and his missus about their head height, come over the wall past my left side, arc round to the right on a descending arc, hit the floor near my foot then bounce back into the wall I was sat on. It was a cm or less wide. It was pretty fast. It took 2 to 3 seconds from where I first saw it to when it went into the wall. Andy was stood opposite me, a second later I looked at him, he looked at me and we said to each other ‘Did you see that?’ It took a few seconds to register as it’s the first time I've seen something unusual like that." Nicola immediately jumped up with excitement and told them what she had witnessed earlier on. She was pleased that someone else had also seen an anomalous red light. At this point James mentioned that he had also previously seen some red orbs of light in the distance to the South East! Below is a statement from James on what he observed: “Originally when you started talking what I was doing knew I was going to be doing a CE5 piece. I was just doing some meditation beforehand to see if anything occurred. I was welcoming any intelligences out there and reaching out for a response in my mind. As I was looking up to left of the trees I saw something briefly up in the sky. Initially I thought maybe it was my eyes playing up so I stared more closely. There were these two red dots in the distance to the East at an angle of about 45 degrees. One appeared then another appeared slightly to the right of it and above it. Then both vanished. 45 seconds later they reappeared again in the same manner, and then a third time soon afterwards. Initially I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t see the orb come down behind us. It was behind me and I was facing the group. What I did see was these two red lights.” Soon after finishing my talk Andy and James began to observe some distant activity in the sky to the North, some white and red lights shooting upward at intervals. They quickly drew our attention to what was going on. I stared closely but was unable to see anything directly. Whatever it was it was quite far away and indistinct. It did not seem to be related to the red orbs which were being seen in our more immediate vicinity. Photograph of Andy attempting to point out the position the lights were being seen in using a laser pointer Here is Andy’s statement on these other lights: “Even when I was looking I had to refocus, you had to know where to look, they weren’t always visible. I don’t think they were spotlights because you’d see the beam, it would have ended and been flat up against the cloud. It was nothing like that. They were little tiny dots. You’d see one or two shoot off in different directions. The last one I saw was most exciting. I saw two morph into one and it went left, slowly came across to right in a straight line, stopped dead then performed a 90 degree turn, moved up a bit then suddenly shot straight up extremely rapidly. That was weird.” Below is a statement from James on what he saw to the North: “About 5 minutes after you completed your talk we saw was a red light and white light in the distance to the North. It would be lower down in the sky and then literally shoot up and disappear with a blurring effect of the light. Thirty seconds later it would appear and do the same thing and shoot up. You were with us and trying to see it but couldn’t see it. It shot up in a straight line leaving blur behind it. Think it did it two times. Other people said they could still see it but I couldn’t.” Like myself Dan did not see these lights directly. I asked him about this and he stated: "I was trying to see the lights and couldn't see them but Andy and James were definitely seeing something." Around the time the activity to the North seemed to have stopped Nicola had got up out of her chair. Rachel approached her for a chat. At this point Nicola had turned around, so the nearby copse of trees was on her right. As they were talking they both suddenly saw the red orb (or another similar one) appear a short distance above the trees. They looked round fast enough to witness it immediately descend diagonally downwards towards the trees and vanish from view. Nicola says it appeared to be about the size of a football. Photograph of the trees with the red orb and path drawn on top and arrow to indicate movement Below is Rachel’s statement on what she recollects: “When I first walked over, Nicola was standing up. I stood facing towards her in the direction we had walked up the hill, with the horseshoe on my right and the raised bit of ground with trees on my left. We were just having a chat when we both saw it at the same time. Out of corner of my eye to my left I saw a red light. It was quite bright which made me immediately look round to my left, as did Nicola to her right. I saw a red ball of light, it didn’t really look like a translucent orb, it was a really strongly glowing red ball. It looked even brighter than the brake lights of a car. It looked about the size of a fist, maybe a little bigger. In a flash it really quickly went down in a diagonal to the left towards the trees, literally in a split second. I didn’t feel like it had gone into the trees. It was if it was going to go behind them but then vanished just before it was hidden by them. The trees weren’t that thick, so if it had gone into or behind the trees I assume I would have still seen it through them but didn’t. I exclaimed ‘God, did you see that?’ Nicola confirmed that she had. I was so shocked that Nicola explained seeing the same thing. I looked round to my right to see if anyone was shining any red lights which could explain it but nobody was. It was too intense to be a torch. Both myself and Ron had red light modes on our head torches but they were off at the time. The only laser pointers people had with them were green, and we would have seen the beam so it can’t have been that.” About 10 minutes later around 9:30pm Nicola had finished talking with Rachel and was relaxing. She says that she briefly saw a red coloured glow coming from either within the trees or beyond them. It was only visible for a moment so didn’t have enough time to tell everyone else to look. The Photograph When Ron looked back through his photographs he noticed a red orb of light on one of them which he did not see at the time. This photograph is taken towards the South East in the direction that Nicola and Rachel had their sightings. The orb is in front of the trees at the right side of the image: Zoomed and enhanced view of the red orb: Below is the metadata of the photograph: The Camera Info, Creator Software, Make, Model, LensID, LensMake, Software, LensModel, ProfileCMMType and ProfileCreator, PrimaryPlatform and ProfileCopyright all prove that the image was taken on an Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max and has not been tampered with using image manipulation software. The CreateDate and DateCreated confirm that the photograph was taken at 10:12pm, just over an hour after I gave my talk. The GPS and GPSPosition confirm the exact position the photograph was taken. The GPSImgDirection confirms that the photo was taken to the South South East (160 degrees). Using this information, it is possible to determine where Ron was standing, the approximate field of view and position of the orb: It is likely that the line behind it is because it was moving t the time. It does not appear to be camera shake as if this were the case you’d get the same tracing path emerging from the visible fence posts. It is clear that it is just the orb which has this path behind it. The blurriness of the photograph is because it was taken under low light conditions using night mode. Nicola confirmed that what was captured on the photograph looks exactly like the orb that she witnessed. I am convinced that there was no permanent red light in that direction coming from beyond the trees. This would have been obvious, especially after we were on high alert for such a light after hearing about what was sighted. The orb appears to be around the area of the path to the South, although this is hard to accurately judge. Even though it is dark, there does not appear to be anyone standing at that location who could be holding a red torch light or other electrical equipment lit with a red LED such as a vape. If there had been, you would expect the red light to be at least partially lighting them up, especially with the high exposure. This edge find zoom picture of the orb highlights the fact that there is no figure-like shape around its vicinity: Also, it seems likely that Ron would have seen it at the time, or others would have seen it slowly moving along the path. Looking at the angle it also looks a little too high up to be a light held by someone. However, this explanation cannot be completely ruled out. Conclusions What is particularly interesting about the orbs seen on this occasion was the number of independent witnesses to them, and the fact that two of these witnesses initially kept this information to themselves. It clearly wasn’t just one person stating they’d seen something and then everyone else imagining things as a result of what had been described. I am of course a little disappointed that I didn’t get to observe any of these orbs directly, but I completely trust all of the witnesses involve and believe they saw what they said they did. From the various statements gathered from the witnesses it is obvious that they have assessed what they observed and been able to largely rule out mundane explanations. The first sighting was the red glow seen by Nicola out of the corner of her eye. While it is not possible to rule out a red light being very briefly switched on elsewhere on the hill by someone, we can rule out it being caused by James, who was the only sky watcher standing in the direction the light was seen, as Nicola immediately looked round and could see that he had no red torch light on. As an investigator for the group it is extremely unlikely that he was playing a prank on the other sky watchers by briefly shining a red light. The red orbs of light which James briefly saw appear in the sky to the South East cannot have been aeroplanes as other navigation lights would have been seen and the lights would have been seen continuously not simply flash up a moment then vanish in a repeating pattern. Aeroplanes also continuously move across the sky, these lights were stationary. Helicopters and drones can also be ruled out due to the fact that the lights were not continuously on. The sound of the rotor blades would likely have been heard. The orbs appeared to be below the cloud layer, and it was not completely dark so it would have been obvious to James where the edges of the clouds were. The close sighting of the tiny orb by Andy and Dan was clearly quite different. I do not believe that this was a red laser pointer being briefly shone by someone, either at the sky watch or from elsewhere on the hill. Red lasers are notoriously weak in comparison to green. While several sky watchers, myself included, had green lasers with them, at no point did I see anyone shining a red laser. More importantly, the laser would need something to reflect off. Therefore the orb itself would have been on the ground, not up in the air as described. Both witnesses described it as being up in the air initially, descending as it came towards them. Dan described it reaching the ground by his feet, which entirely rules out someone higher up the hill shining a laser, as at this low height it would logically have hit the side of the wall with the plaques on and no longer been visible. The orb was too small to have been caused by a red torch light, this would have made a wider rounded patch of light, again at ground level. I, Ron and Rachel all had head lamps on which had a red colour setting, but these were not engaged at the time (I had it set to white light in order to read my sighting notes as can be seen from the photograph). The red orb briefly seen above the trees by Nicola and Rachel could not have been a laser pointer or red torch light as at the position it was at there was nothing for it to reflect off. A drone over the trees would have been audible, and would have not suddenly appeared, we would have seen and heard it it approach. It was the wrong colour and moved too rapidly for a red LED balloon or sky lantern. This object seemed to be larger in size and completely red in colour, so was likely to be different to what Andy and Dan saw. Most of the sightings of the orbs appeared between 9 to 9.30pm, with the photograph being taken roughly an hour later. Before and prior to this time period nothing out of the ordinary was seen. Why the activity spiked around these times is unknown. James was attempting to send out a message in his mind, but it is unknown whether this in some way led to the activity or not. Nicola also stated that she is a magnet for this kind of thing so maybe it was down to her presence on the sky watch. It is unknown whether the photograph Ron took unintentionally captured one of the orbs. If so it looks closest to what Nicola and Rachel described. It is not high enough in the air to completely rule out the idea that it was someone holding something with a red light on, but there are aspects of what happened which point away from this explanation. The white and red lights seen in the distance to the North are more spurious. While unusual, some of those present could not see them at all, and they only lasted for a short period of time. It seems unlikely that they were in any way related to the other activity going on in the vicinity. This is not the first time that activity has occurred during one of our sky watches. At our Cannock Chase sky watch back in 2023 a number of erratic orange-coloured orbs were witnessed. Click here to check the separate report on this incident. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2026

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Year: 2023 Last Updated: 29/09/2026 Nigel first got in touch with BUFOG in January 2023. He wanted to report numerous UFO sightings he had experienced right back to his childhood. I arranged a Facebook Messenger chat with him to go over everything in depth. 04/11/1974 – White Orbs In his younger years Nigel used to live on Bells Lane, Wordsley, Stourbridge. He had his first sighting in the mid 1970s when he was 10 years old. When he reported the incident to me he believed it took place in October/November of 1973. However, I have good reason to believe the incident actually occurred on 4th November 1974 (see later). Aerial map of Bells Lane Nigel has always had an interest in astronomy. Previous he had always used binoculars to stare at the sky. He was very familiar with how satellites and distant aircraft looked after dark. He recalls seeing white orbs of light which suddenly shot away or performed right angle turns on numerous occasions. In 1973 his parents bought him a telescope. One evening around 7pm he and his friend Dale (now sadly deceased) headed into the back garden to sky watch. It was a cool but clear evening and the stars were fully visible. After they had been out there about an hour Nigel noticed a bright white orb of light slowly ascending in the sky to the East/South East. It seemed to have come up from the ground Suddenly at an elevation of about 40 degrees it came to a halt. He pointed it out to Dale. Initially the boys thought it was a helicopter. They stared at it for about 15 seconds. Suddenly two smaller orbs of light seemed to emerge from either side of the main orb. They began rapidly flying around it in arcs like ping pong balls! They were totally amazed at what they were witnessing. After about 15 seconds they then seemed to re-enter the larger orb. It then suddenly sped up to a fast speed and ascended at a sharp angle until it had vanished from sight. Nigel felt that the object had been under intelligent non-human control, and that they had put on this display directly for them. Witness drawing of the orbs with arrows to show movement patterns Soon after the sighting Nigel walked Dale back home. Dale lived in a dark cul-de-sac so was afraid to walk back by himself at night. On his return walk a sense of calm came over him, he felt there was no need to be frightened. When he got back home he told his parents about what he and his friend had witnessed. They just stared at him without saying a word. He then headed back outside to see if the object would reappear but it did not. The following evening he was sitting in the living room watching TV. The news show Midlands Today was on. The presenter mentioned that if you were looking to the East the previous night and saw something unusual this was very likely a rocket that had been launched from China. However, this did not seem to correspond to what he and his friend had witnessed. He turned to his father and said “That was no rocket!” I asked Google AI whether China had any rocket launches in the autumn of 1973 to see if I could determine the precise date of this sighting. It confirmed that there were no Chinese rocket launches around this time: However, as you can see, it does mention that there was a failed satellite launch on 5th November 1974. It’s very likely that this is the incident which Nigel saw reported on the news, meaning that he probably has the date wrong and the sighting occurred on 4th November 1974. Photograph of the Long March 2 rocket prior to launch While the incident could easily be dismissed as the failed launch viewed from many miles away, there are aspects which don’t fit with this. The movement of the small orbs is obviously bizarre, while these could have been debris or flames moving around the rocket as it failed, the swooping arcing manoeuvres sound unusual. However, the main issue is that Nigel states the main orb came to a halt while the smaller orbs emerged from it for a good 15 seconds, and also then proceeded to ascend at a rapid rate. Logically the failed rocket would not have done this it would have either exploded or fallen back down to the ground. Therefore, I am inclined to agree with Nigel on this one – the failed rocket does not explain what was witnessed. It was not an aeroplane as these need to move continuously, the object halted for long enough to rule this out. It was clearly not a distant helicopter due to the smaller orbs that seemingly emerged, and the speed it ascended at the end of the sighting. The sighting occurred decades before drones were available, and the movements observed were far too controlled to be down to lit inflatables being buffeted around in air currents. Although the incident occurred close to bonfire night, the fact that the main orb halted before ascending rapidly also rules out fireworks or flares. Spring Mid 1970s - Grey Disc The back of Nigel’s house faced South, with a view of the sky between two neighbouring houses. One early spring day within two years of the white orbs sighting Nigel was in the kitchen with his parents around mid-day. They were looking out of the window when they suddenly called him over saying “Nige look! There’s something here!” He looked out of the window to see what they were observing. In the gap between the two neighbouring houses he could see a silvery-grey coloured disc-shaped object. It was positioned vertically and quite low down, probably only about 300 feet up. The object was slowly rotating. After about 3 seconds it suddenly completely vanished. His parents exclaimed “I can’t believe that! It’s just disappeared!” They continued to watch to see if it would re-appear but it did not. Witness drawing of the disc with notes This is an intriguing sighting due to the appearance of the object and the way in which it vanished. It was clearly close enough for the witnesses to observe its shape and body colour. While distant objects reflecting light can suddenly seem to vanish when they change angle and no longer catch the light, this is not what was described by Nigel. It also did not move position in the sky so is unlikely to have been hidden by a cloud. It did not have the appearance of a distant aircraft. Clearly his parents thought it was something unusual. Mid 1970s – Grey Cigar & Dark Spheres Again between the age of 10-12 Nigel had a third sighting. One day he was visiting his friend Mick. They were both out in the back garden around mid-day. It was a pleasant day with patchy cloud in the sky. Mick suddenly noticed a number of objects in the sky overhead. He pointed them out to Nigel. There was a cigar-shaped object, silver-grey in colour with no visible wings or tail. Positioned around it were a number of small circular dark coloured objects. The objects appeared to be several thousand feet up in the low cloud layer. Witness drawing of the cigar and spheres The boys watched as the objects moved towards a cloud and vanish from sight. As the main object moved forward on a straight course the circular objects slowly moved away from it in different directions. They expected the objects to reappear out of the other side but they did not. Again the appearance of these objects rules out normal mundane explanations. While distant aircraft can sometimes appear as cigars, it is usually possible to make out the wings. Especially when viewed from below. And this does not explain the other smaller circular objects around it, or the way that all the objects vanished and did not re-emerge from the cloud travelling on the same trajectories. 1983 – White Orb This particular sighting involved the parents of Nigel’s partner Joanne, both now deceased. In the early 1980s they lived in Kidderminster. One day in 1983 they had been out to the Black Country. It was after midnight and they were on the A449 driving home. They were close to the vicinity of a pub called the Stewponey in Stourton, which has now been replaced with apartments. Due to the time of night there were no other vehicles on the road. Aerial map of the A449 indicating the approximate location of the incident Photograph of the A449 Suddenly they notice a large bright white orb of light in the sky. It approached their location, and as it passed over the car both the engine and the radio cut out! They slowed down to a halt on the road. The orb seemed to have stopped in the air over the car. Nigel is unsure whether they looked up at it at all. After a period of time the light seemed to vanish and at the same time the engine and radio in the car came back on. It had seemingly only been there for a short time, and the witnesses had no indication that anything else had taken place. This incident has all the hallmarks of a genuine UFO experience. The fact that the car engine and radio cut out as the orb got within close proximity, then came back on after it had disappeared is compelling. It is extremely likely that the electrical interference was coming from the object rather than it simply being a coincidence. This also rules out mundane explanations for the light such as a helicopter with a searchlight or lit inflatable. It is unknown whether any contact took place. The witnesses did not feel that they had experienced any missing time, but as they did not confirm this by checking a clock both before and after the incident this possibility remains. March-June 2020 – Silver Disc Some point on a sunny day during the UK Covid 19 lockdown (which occurred between March and June 2020) Nigel was sitting in the back garden of his house relaxing. He looked up and noticed a disc-shaped object in the sky travelling in a Western direction. It was silver in colour and brightly reflecting sunlight. It did not appear particularly big in size, perhaps 10 feet across. The object moved on a straight and level course and seemed to be flying directly and under control. After several seconds as it moved away from his location it suddenly seemed to shrink down in size and completely vanish! Regarding this sighting, I do wonder if the object was some kind of novelty inflatable. Nigel does not believe this was the case but this cannot be completely ruled out. It was not very large and did not perform any advanced manoeuvres. There was no drift detected but if it was caught in an air current it could have travelled on quite a straight course. The way in which it seemed to shrink down and vanish is interesting, but what isn’t clear is how far away it was when it appeared to do this. If it had bright light shining on it but then moved into an angle where this reflection stopped this could easily give the impression of it suddenly disappearing. Summer 2022 – White Orb Not much is known at present about this particular incident. It occurred in Romsley, Halesowen. One evening in summer time Nigel’s sister had gone out to a pub there for a meal with some friends. As she walked from the car park towards the pub entrance she saw a bright orb of light above the nearby trees. She pointed it out to her friends but a moment later before they got to see it the light vanished without trace. This is obviously not a particularly impressive incident. It is unlikely it was a satellite as these move continuously and it sounds like this was something within the atmosphere. However, it could have potentially been a distant aircraft, drone or white coloured LED balloon which then moved out of sight or got hidden from view behind a cloud. If Nigel or his sister confirms more details in due course, I may be able to rule out some or all of these explanations. Summer 2022 – Light Yellow Orbs One night in the same summer Nigel and Joanne saw dim light yellow orbs of light travelling across the sky in a South Easterly direction. The objects seemingly arrived from different directions but then formed a loose formation and started to follow along after one another. They appeared to be at very high altitude similar to a jet airliner. After travelling South East a while they then seemed to fade out one at a time in the same area of sky. They were moving slower that meteorites but all travelled at the same speed. There are several possibilities for what was observed on this occasion. Firstly it is possible that Nigel and Joanne were witnessing the launch of a number of Starlink satellites. When launched these generally follow the same route but also get moved around using jets to position them, which could have been responsible for the movements observed. Maybe they faded out due to moving to a position where they were not reflecting the sunlight. Sadly we do not know the precise date of this incident at present, but there were numerous Starlink launches in July and August 2022, so its certainly plausible. Sky lanterns are usually amber orange in colour so can be ruled out, but a number of LED balloons or drones flying to a drone show cannot be entirely ruled out. However I feel a Starlink launch is probably what was seen. Summer 2022 – Thin Grey UFO Later in the summer Nigel was sitting in the back garden with Joanne’s father. It was a bright and still day. Nigel looked to the west and noticed a grey coloured object in the sky. It looked like a flattened sheet of some kind. It appeared to be about the size of a hot air balloon (60 feet). The object gradually approached from the North East and slowly flew over the garden and roof of the house. From the sound of things, this object could well have been a floating thin sheet of plastic drifting on a slow air current. Nigel does not rule this out as a possibility as the wind often moves in a South Westerly direction where he lives. Conclusions Nigel has had a number of fascinating UFO sightings throughout his life, sometimes also witnessed by others. Sadly these other witnesses are either deceased or are not interested in speaking with me currently, so we only have his testimony to go on. However I have no reason to doubt that these incidents have taken place as he has reported them. While some of the sightings may have been of mundane objects including inflatables and Starlink satellites, others are more intriguing and have aspects harder to explain in mundane terms. If he gets back in touch some additional details may be added to the report. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2026

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 23/04/2023 Last Updated: 25/09/2026 In April 2023 I was contacted on Facebook Messenger by a lady named Debby after I was recommended to her by the owner of Alien Abductions & UFO Sightings group. I reached out to her via phone to discuss a fascinating incident which she, and her husband at the time, Tony, had experienced back in the summer of 1991. At the time of the incident Debby had no knowledge of UFOs or contact phenomenon. Up until recent years she had always put what happened down to a ghostly experience rather than contact-related. However in 2022 she was listening to a paranormal-themed radio show which invited listeners to call in. She decided to share her story and got in touch. After hearing the details, the host suggested that the experience may have been ET related, which prompted her to start looking into the contact subject, and join numerous groups on social media. This report describes what took place in depth and features numerous drawings Debby has drawn on my request. Incident Details Back in 1991 when Debby was 23 years old, she lived with Tony in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. One day in either July or August they decided to head to Great Yarmouth on the East coast for a day out at the seaside. Debby’s parents agreed to look after their one year old daughter for the day. It was a very pleasant day with warm and clear weather. At around 10.15 pm they began their drive back to Hitchin. Aerial map indicating Great Yarmouth (A) and Hitchin (B) One of the main roads that leads between Great Yarmouth and Hitchin is Thetford Road (A1066) which leads between Scole and Thetford. It was approximately 11 pm, and they were driving West along this road towards Thetford. To the East of Thetford is an area of dense woodland known as Thetford Forest Park. Debby believes that they were on the stretch of road which passes through this area. Aerial map of the stretch of Thetford Road in which Debby believes the incident took place Due to the time of evening it was fully dark, but a still and clear night, with the stars visible in the sky. It was quite quiet on the road, and at this particular point of the journey she believes there were no other vehicles either ahead or behind of them. Tony was driving and she was in the passenger seat. Daylight photograph of the stretch of road All of a sudden she began to feel extremely hot and very tired at the same time. This feeling seemed to come on very suddenly rather than gradually. It was accompanied by a very strange feeling, almost like “being inside a vacuum”. She does not recall saying anything to Tony about how she was suddenly feeling as she thought he would very likely have just dismissed it as her being naturally tired. But it felt like she was being put off to sleep against her will. The next thing she became aware of was of Tony loudly exclaiming “For god’s sake what’s going on? What the bloody hell’s going on here?” in a panicked fashion, and of him slamming on the brakes of the car. She opened her eyes and immediately saw in front of the car four short figures lit up in the headlights. The beings were standing in a line and facing to the right. They were silvery-grey in colour and covered in a shimmering effect, almost like they were holograms instead of being physically there. Most of them seemed to be about 4 feet in height, but the one furthest on the right was a little taller, perhaps 5 feet. As they appeared to be only about 4 feet away from the front of the car she could not see their legs, only their waists and upper bodies. She could not make out any physical details, but could see that their heads were larger than human children’s would have been. Witness drawing of the beings visible through the front windscreen They seemed to be levitating and gliding along in the same direction as the car. But even though they were slowing down, it was immediately clear that they were going to collide with these figures. Just before they reached them they seemed to dissolve away, almost like breaking glass. Next Debby saw what looked like a wall made out of rounded sections appear in front of the car. It reminded her of a rural cobbled wall. It too was shimmering in the same way that the beings had been. It was about 4 feet in height. Again as they were about to crash into it, this too seemed to disintegrate into shards and vanish. Witness drawing of the wall-like structure Several seconds later the four figures appeared in view, standing in the same positions that they had been in before, all looking to the right. Debby finds it very hard to explain what happened next, but she says they seemed to drive along for about two minutes, with the figures remaining a few feet ahead of the car. After this time, the figure which was slightly taller than the other three suddenly turned its head and looked directly at them. Its face looked pale and skeletal, but she could make out large dark “empty sockets” for eyes and a thin line for a mouth. No other facial features were visible. Witness drawing of the being turning and looking at her At this point she seemed to black out for an unknown period of time. Her next conscious memory was of hearing Tony exclaim “Oh my god what’s happening here?” As she came round and opened her eyes she realised they no longer seemed to be on the road. They were driving very fast along a dirt track, with embankments of soil on either side of the car. It was like they had left the road and were now on a track through a field. It was extremely dark as the only source of light was the headlights ahead of them.Once again Debby lost track of what was happening. Her next memory was of being back in her flat in Hitchin. She had no idea of how she had got there. She could not remember the remainder of the journey home or even entering the flat. It was the early hours of the morning, about 2. She was sitting at the table in the living room opposite Tony. They both had cups of coffee which she assumes he must have made. Tony said to her “Something really weird happened on that stretch of road!” Without telling him anything about what she could remember happening, she asked him “What do you mean?” He said “There were some figures standing in the road.” After Debby realised he was remembering the same things as herself she agreed with him and then they discussed with one another what had taken place. She found out that he had experienced pretty much the same things as herself – the sudden feeling of heat and tiredness, the figures ahead of them, the strange vision of the wall, and then memories of driving down a dirt track in the dark. Debby felt traumatised by what had happened. Her hands were shaking and palms were sweaty. These after effects lasted for several days but slowly subsided. Because of the pale features of the figures she had seen, and the dark “eye sockets” of the one that had looked at her, she put the incident down to a number of ghostly apparitions. Debby says that her sister has an interest in the paranormal, so soon after the incident she told her sister what had taken place. She cannot recall how her sister reacted to the news. After this she pushed the memory to the back of her mind and did not mention it to anyone else. It was only in 2022 that she finally spoke out about the incident on the radio show, and discovered that it might have been contact related. After looking online she realised that the beings she had seen could well have been Greys, and what she thought was empty eye sockets in the being which looked at her could have been large black eyes instead. She says that in the years since then she has made numerous trips to Great Yarmouth and travelled along the same stretch of road, but as the incident happened after dark with no distinctive landmarks observed she is unable to locate the precise place which it happened. Incident Analysis This is a very intriguing incident, and one made up of many different aspects. It is important to break it down into parts in order to establish what may have taken place. Debby says the experience began with a sudden feeling of heat and tiredness. If it had been just her who experienced this then the entire incident could have potentially been put down to a medical issue such as heat stroke, or potentially just a sudden natural requirement to sleep after a long day out, followed by some bizarre dreams. However Debby confirmed that she gets nervous when in cars, so never drops off while being driven places. She had not consumed any alcohol in the day, and had not felt sleepy at any previous point of the drive. Even though it had been a warm day it had obviously got cooler now that the sun had set, so there was no real explanation for either the sudden warmth or tiredness. Of course the main issue with this possible explanation is the fact that this feeling of heat and tiredness, and everything that subsequently followed, was experienced not only by her but also by Tony. After the incident he confirmed that everything she had experienced he had also seen. I am unable to speak with Tony directly as they have now separated, but I have no reason to doubt what Debby has stated. The likelihood that both of them would drop off to sleep at the same moment, and then happen to have exactly the same dreams is ridiculously small, so I believe this explanation can be ruled out on this basis. It should also be noted that I have investigated other completely separate contact experiences where the same things have been reported – a feeling of warmth and sudden stillness. The four beings that both the witnesses then saw appear in front of the car certainly had the characteristics of Greys – the short height, bald heads and large dark eyes, which Debby took for empty sockets at the time. The scenario sounds quite surreal, with the beings seemingly drifting along in front of the car, and also dissolving away when the car was about to crash into them. Then there was the image of a barrier of some kind made up out of rounded sections that reminded Debby of a cobblestone wall. I have not had this described to me before in any other cases. Due to the way in which it too dissolved away it does appear to have been linked with the beings rather than an actual country wall, but exactly what it was is open to speculation. It is possible that the beings seen in the road then abducted both witnesses for an unknown period of time. The sudden jump in position of the car is an indicator that there is a gap in their memory of events. It appears that they had left the main road and were driving along a dirt track in the vicinity. I have been unable to locate any potential tracks of this nature using aerial maps, although the incident took place decades ago so perhaps it is no longer present. This memory was again followed by a period of missing time. It is astounding that neither witness had any recollection of driving the remainder of the journey, arriving at their house, or entering it. This is a substantial distance – there is 62 miles between Thetford and Hitchin. Could they really have driven the entire journey in a daze without any memory of it? Or was their vehicle literally lifted off the road and then returned to their address? This may sound wild, but there are a number of abduction cases on record where people have reported vehicles being taken in addition to passengers. An avenue open to Debby, should she choose to proceed down it, is hypnotic regression. Perhaps under hypnosis she may recall some of what happened during the missing gaps in her memory. However at present she has not arranged this as she is a little concerned about what may be uncovered. There are some really interesting elements to this case. Although we only have the single testimony to go on at present, I feel that the details provided are too specific and unusual to have been fabricated, and it is important to remember that it has only been in recent years that Debby has even viewed it as being contact related in the first place. She comes across as an extremely trustworthy witness, and I am pleased that she reached out to me to discuss this incredible incident! Copyright Dave Hodrien 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

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Year: 2023 Last Updated: 15/09/2026 At the start of June 2023 a man named Scott got in touch with BUFOG via our website’s sighting report form to provide details on a sighting of multiple UFOs that he and his wife had experienced back in May 2021. Sighting Details Late morning on 19th May 2021 Scott was outside the front of his house on Highfield Road, Rowley Regis, washing his car. It was a very pleasant, clear and cloudless day. At mid-day he finished washing the vehicle and headed back inside. His then decided to join his wife on the bench in their back garden. As he exited the back door, he noticed a glinting light to the North West in the sky. He looked closer and realised it was a glowing sphere of white light. It appeared to be at a very high altitude. He pointed it out to his wife and they both started to watch the object. They soon realised it was moving slowly in their direction. As it got nearer a second similar object appeared alongside the first. Then the first object seemed to begin to elongate in shape, before shrinking back down to a sphere. As the two objects continued to move closer, more and more appeared on a similar course until there were 10 of them visible. They travelled overhead one after another and continued to move slowly away to the South East, eventually disappearing due to the distance. Scott had a smartphone on him but at no point did he consider filming the objects. In total the sighting lasted for about 15 minutes. Sighting Analysis Due to the number of objects seen, their appearance and slow speed it is unlikely they were aircraft. While multiple aircraft can of course fly in formation, they tend to fly in more organised patterns, and would not take 15 minutes to cross from one side of the sky to the other. Even at high altitude their general shape would also usually be visible. The objects were the wrong shape for drones, so I do not believe this was a sighting of a number of distant drones on their way to or from a drone show. As it was a bright and sunny day, it is likely that the objects were not self-luminescent but were in fact brightly reflecting sunlight. I feel that the most probable explanation for this sighting is a number of novelty balloons, which may or may not have been launched intentionally. When the initial object seemed to change shape and elongate it was probably just rotating, making it temporarily appear to be a different shape. The very slow speed the objects were moving at, combined with the fact they did not perform any turns, suggests they were all drifting on a slow and steady air current. Until proven otherwise this does seem like the most likely explanation for what was observed. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2026

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Year: 2023 Last Updated: 14/09/2026 In late September 2023 I released a report about a Flying Triangle sighting from Hythe in 2015. In response to this, a man named Andrew got in touch via Facebook Messenger to discuss a similar sighting he experienced back in 1988 or 1989. We corresponded back and forth a number of times to go over what took place in depth. Sighting Details Andrew believes the incident occurred in either 1988 or 1989. He sadly cannot recall the time of year. After spending the evening out attending a junior Chamber of Commerce meeting held at a building on Derby Road he headed for home about 11:30pm. As he was driving he was completely sober. Aerial map of Derby Road At the time of the sighting Andrew lived on a quiet cul-de-sac in Chilwell. He drove his usual route home. There were no traffic incidents which would have slowed down the journey, so it took approximately 20-30 minutes to travel the route. Aerial map indicating Derby Road (A) and Chilwell (B) He arrived home just before midnight. After parking up on the drive he sat in his car with the engine off to catch the end of an interesting radio programme he had been listening to on the way home (He cannot remember the name of the programme). After around 5 minutes it ended and he got out of the car. It was a mild and still evening, with a clear sky. Andrew is interested in astronomy so looked up to admire the view of the stars. After a moment he walked towards his front door, before glancing up once more. As he did he realised there was a dark shape moving above him. He initially thought it must be a cloud, but then remembered that it was a very clear night. The shape was moving and seemed to be very large in size and at quite low altitude over the house, although he openly admits he had no point of reference. Andrew estimates it was about the size of a football pitch (330 feet). The object was elongated triangular in shape with no lights or sound. It moved across the sky on a level and straight course, and as it moved it blocked out the stars. It felt ominous or foreboding, even a little frightening, as it passed directly overhead. Witness drawing of the UFO on a modified photograph of the sighting location After it had passed over it just glided silently towards the horizon continuing on the same course towards the South East. It was not moving particularly fast, but did move at a steady and controlled speed. There was nobody else around in the neighbourhood at the time. Unfortunately, Andrew did not have a camera on him. There was one in the house, but he was worried to go and get it in case the object vanished. His wife at the time was asleep inside, but he did not open the door and shout to wake her up, he was too busy watching the UFO. After several minutes he lost sight of the object as it disappeared from view behind his neighbour’s house. Andrew says that he is an aviation enthusiast and is well aware of what normal aircraft and airships look like. Whatever this thing was, it was neither. He was in awe of what he’d just witnessed so ran inside and woke his wife up to excitedly tell her what he’d seen. When she woke up she said to him “Where have you been until this time?” When he checked the clock he realised the time was around 3am! The only mundane explanation he can think of which could possibly explain this anomaly was that he had fallen asleep in his car while listening to the radio. However, he has no recollection of doing so, or of waking back up again. After discovering the time difference and wondering about it for a short while Andrew says that he got into bed and went to sleep. Sighting Analysis This is a fascinating sighting of a possible triangular shaped craft, commonly referred to as a “Flying Triangle”, which may or may not have involved direct interaction. It is unlikely the object was a normal aircraft as there were no navigation lights visible on it, and the shape does not sound right for that explanation either. Usually the shape of the wings and tail would be more obvious. While the B2 Stealth Bomber is triangular in shape, surprisingly quiet, and is often flown completely dark (with no navigation lights switched on) during military training exercises, there are a number of aspects which do not fit with this possibility. First of all, the object appeared to be low down and very large in size. A Stealth Bomber on a training exercise would not be flown at low altitude over residential housing. And even if it was then the sound of its engines would definitely have been heard. Also the shape of the object sounds different – the B2 Stealth Bomber is squat triangular in shape, not elongated as the witness describes. It also sounds much too large to have been a hand glider or inflatable. A novelty hot air balloon again doesn’t sound likely. First of all, even if this was largely silhouetted, the flame at the basket would be visible after dark, especially as it moved away into the distance. Also it is illegal to fly hot air balloons after dark without a safety warning light, a flashing white light which hangs down below the basket to warn other air traffic. Regarding the time discrepancy between when it should have been and when it actually was, which was only discovered after Andrew had entered the house, it seems unlikely that he did fall asleep in his car. He was interested in the radio programme; this is the reason why he kept it on after arriving home. And as soon as it ended he got out of the vehicle. Andrew also mentioned that he has never asleep while sitting in a car. With these explanations dismissed, I feel there is certainly the possibility that this was a genuine sighting of a large Flying Triangle craft. The missing time aspect of the sighting suggests that this may have interacted with the witness without him being aware of this fact and that an abduction may have taken place which was then blocked out from his mind. If so, then up till now the memories of what took place have not returned, although they may do so in the future. If Andrew gets back in touch with any further information, then this report may be updated. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2026

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Year: 2023 Last Updated: 12/09/2026 Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used In late July of 2023 I was contacted on Facebook by a man from Northampton. He informed me that he had experienced contact and wanted to share the details of his experiences with me. A few days later I arranged a detailed conversation with him via video call to go over everything in depth, which has led to the creation of this extensive report. Early Signs “Steve” was born in 1968 and spent the early years of his life living with his parents in the village of Tring, North West of London. As far back as he can recollect he has been fascinated in space and convinced that we are not alone in the universe. As with many other children, he had a fear of the dark in his room at night and of something hiding under his bed, so the door of his room was left ajar and the landing light left on. Between the ages of four to six he remembers numerous incidents where he would see a glowing light coming from outside of his bedroom at night. This seemed to occur quite regularly, perhaps as often as once a month. He would be lying in bed and would suddenly see a fiery orange coloured glow coming from around the edges of the door. There was never any sound accompanied by this or feelings of a presence, but he wonders if something else took place with these incidents, and it was more than just childhood imagination. The family lived in an old house with no heating except for a gas fire in the living room, so at night his mother would tuck in the sheets very tightly around him. This meant that although he was warmer there was barely any room to move around. He recalls one incident where he awoke to find himself turned round in the bed, with his head under the sheets where his feet should have been! Looking back at this, the most puzzling aspect to him is that there would not have been enough space for him to have done this in his sleep. Again he wonders if something more took place with this. Steve informed me that he found it difficult to make friends as a child and was bullied at school. He says that from an early age he felt different to the other children and didn’t belong, but at the time had no inkling as to why. Between the age of six to seven he owned a number of Wade Whimsie ceramic animal models which he used to play with. An example collection of Wade Whimsie ceramic animals To his recollection he used to sometimes talk with these models and believes that he got re-assuring communication back from them. He does not put this down to just being unhappy at the time, but cannot remember precisely what they said to him. White Orb In 2007 at the age of 39 Steve moved into a house on Stanley Street, Northampton with his partner, and another house mate. However it was not until 2014 that he had his first UFO encounter. By this point in his life he had developed an interest in the subject, and one evening in late autumn he was watching Ancient Aliens on television by himself. His partner had already gone up to bed, and his house mate was in his own room. It got to about 11pm and he decided to call it a night. Before heading up to bed he decided to grab a cup of tea and then head out into the back garden for a cigarette. He stepped outside the back door of the property and sat down on the garden bench. It was a very clear and still night, with no cloud cover and the stars visible in the sky. Stanley Street is on a slope, and from his garden Steve had a clear view over the roofs of the houses to the West. At the Western end of the road at the T-junction with St Andrews Road there is a corner shop and a fish and chips shop named The Galleon. Photograph of the shops at the junction between Stanley Street and St Andrews Road Above the roofs of these shops Steve suddenly noticed a brightly glowing white orb of light. It appeared to be very low down, only 100 feet up, and much too low to be a bright star. It appeared to be hovering motionless so it could not have been a plane, and did not have any red or green navigation lights visible, so did not appear to be a helicopter either. Aerial 3D map showing the position of the witness and the initial position of the orb Steve sat there for a couple of minutes puzzled at what the orb of light could be. He then realised that it was not stationary, but was in fact moving slowly in his direction. As it got nearer he realised there was no sound coming from it whatsoever. He began to get apprehensive of the object, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He continued to watch, transfixed on the object. It continued on a straight and level course and passed directly over his head before slowly heading away to the East. As it did he suddenly realised he had not taken any footage of the object as he had been so caught up in watching it. He got out his Sony Xperia mobile phone, which had a rudimentary camera, and took two photographs of the orb. Unfortunately Steve no longer has these photographs for analysis as he did not save them on his computer or on Google. He did upload them to an old Facebook account, but unfortunately it got hacked so he had to create a new one, losing all his older posts. Over a number of minutes the object slowly moved further and further away until it was lost from sight behind a tall tree in a garden further up the road. In total he had watched the object for up to 10 minutes. He sat there amazed at what he had just witnessed, before heading back inside, shaking with excitement. Aerial 3D map showing the movement path of the orb Steve wanted answers to what had occurred, and didn’t even want to wait till morning to get them! He checked on his computer and tracked down a UK-based UFO researcher online (he cannot remember the name of this researcher). He then got in touch with this individual, apologising for ringing them so late. When he described what had just happened, the researcher informed him that there had been some other similar sightings reported further North on the same evening. The object he saw sounds interesting, especially given its supposedly close proximity. I asked Steve whether it could have been the International Space Station. This can sometimes appear to be much closer than it actually is. However he said that he has seen the ISS numerous times crossing the sky, and is convinced that this object was in the atmosphere not out in orbit. Also it sounds like it was moving too slowly to be the ISS. Due to the lack of navigation lights or sound I agree with Steve that it could not have been a normal aircraft. Steve says that he has a personal interest in aviation. Also Tring is situated close to an Royal Air Force base, RAF Halton, and he would often see aircraft flying to or from the base for air shows, so is familiar with how planes of various kinds look under different levels of lighting and distances. A drone would also have made audible sound at low altitude. It was the wrong colour for a Chinese lantern, which tend to emit an orange glow. I cannot fully rule out a white coloured LED balloon, although it does sound quite large and impressive from the description, and you would also expect a bit of drift from one of these. Although not all mundane explanations can be fully ruled out this is an intriguing sighting. The Abduction Within a week of the orb sighting, Steve believes that he was abducted. He was relaxing on the couch downstairs watching TV. Again his partner was already asleep. He was not feeling particularly tired, and does not recall dropping off to sleep. He suddenly became aware of being in another location. He found himself sitting at a table in a dimly lit room, still clothed. The room was square in shape, with a high ceiling, about 20 feet. There was a dull purple-green coloured light coming down from above. He could just about make out the walls. They were magnolia in colour, the same as the ceiling and floor, and did not seem to contain any windows or doorways. There appeared to be no other furnishings in the room. The table he was sitting at had a dull metallic look to it, and was raised about three feet off the floor. Sitting on the opposite side of it a little to his left was a Grey. The being was unclothed and had smooth pale grey coloured skin. It had a large head, oval shaped dark coloured eyes, small nostrils and a slit for a mouth. As it was sitting down it was hard to tell how tall it would be if it stood up. The being was staring directly at him, but seemingly not making any attempts to communicate with him. He then suddenly noticed a standing Reptilian being had appeared behind the Grey. He is unsure of where this being came from, as there were seemingly no doors into the room, it was just suddenly there. Again it was unclothed, and was covered in jade green square-shaped scales. Its face was lizard-like, while at the same time possessing some humanoid qualities. It had a strong and muscular body frame, clawed hands and large clawed feet. Behind it Steve could see a pointed tail about 2-3 feet long. It walked from left to right behind the Grey. As it reached a position level with him it suddenly stopped, turned and looked at him. At this moment he felt a warm sensation pass through him from head to feet. He then received a telepathic communication from this being in his mind. The voice of the Reptilian was male, with a deep but calming and friendly tone to it. It started by telling him to not be afraid, that he would not be harmed and that they were his friends. It then told him that he was important to them and that he would find out more information in due course about this. Steve had previously looked into contact so recognised these beings as aliens. He was not frightened of the situation but was instead intrigued and fascinated that he was there. He tried to speak back to the Reptilian in his mind, telling it that he was honoured to be there and that he wasn’t scared of them. The being did not seem to respond to this in any way. Instead it raised one of its clawed hands as if to say goodbye. It then turned around and walked away into the darkness, seemingly vanishing into thin air. A moment later he suddenly jumped and found himself back on the couch in his home. What had just happened felt extremely real to him, far more vivid than a normal dream would. He remembered every detail and was convinced that he had actually been taken somewhere else. Steve did not inform his partner about what had happened, as according to him he is quite sceptical of the subject. He did confide in a number of friends on Facebook about the experience. Due to the fact that Steve was relaxing at the time of the incident, that he was alone at the time, and that no UFO sighting or other anomalies occurred prior to the experience, it would be easy to dismiss this incident as nothing more than a dream. He had looked into contact prior to the incident, so was aware of the main types of entities reported by experiencers. That said, he confirmed that it felt extremely vivid, more so than a dream would normally feel. This is extremely commonly reported with contact experiences. Cone Shaped UFOs On 29th June 2015 Steve was out driving on a country lane near to Little Gaddesden. Unfortunately he cannot recall the exact road he was on at the time, and I have not been able to work it out from the photograph which he took. It was 7.15pm when he parked up alongside a farmer’s field. It was pleasant and clear weather so he got out to relax. Looking over to the right across the fields the ground began to slope upwards, and in the distance were some dense copses of trees. All of a sudden a dark grey coloured cone-shaped object moved upwards into view from behind the tree line. It appeared to be continuously rotating, and reminded him of an old spinning top. It only remained visible for a few seconds before drifting back down out of sight. A couple of seconds later, a second similarly-shaped object moved upwards in the same manner, again hovering briefly before descending again! This pattern continued for several minutes, with one object ascending into view and then the other, back and forth. After watching puzzled for a short while, Steve decided to photograph one of the objects on his Sony Xperia smartphone, and then take some video footage. Unfortunately he has since lost the footage as he did a clear out of Google Photos a while back and removed many of the stored videos he had previously taken to save space. However he was able to send me the photograph, which he claims shows one of these cone-shaped objects: In order to check the authenticity of the image I extracted and analysed its metadata: The Camera Info, Creator Software, Make and Model values all confirm this was taken on a Sony Xperia camera and has not been manipulated on image editing software. While it is possible to modify metadata, most people do not even know what it is, let alone how to edit it. Looking at the photograph you may well think that this shows nothing more than a distant hot air balloon. This was my immediate reaction upon seeing the photo. The object appears to have a similar shape, and unfortunately the image is not high quality enough to make out much detail. Here is a zoomed view of the object: Could the objects have been nothing more than a couple of hot air balloons, perhaps being briefly tested one at a time which could have caused the movement patterns observed? I ran this possibility by Steve, but he disagreed with this explanation. He informed me that first of all the objects seemed to be ascending and descending far too rapidly for them to have been distant hot air balloons. And secondly he has of course (like most people of his age) seen distant hot air balloons on many occasions and knows exactly what they look like. That said, due to the similarity in shape I do not believe this possibility can be entirely ruled out. Lit Disc In 2015 Steve had shift work as a coach driver. The company he worked for would contact him to provide pick-ups to and from locations. One of the regular pick-ups he would do involved picking up students from West Herts College in Hemel Hempstead and taking them to and from a nightclub located at Batchwood Hall in St Albans. Aerial map indicating West Herts College (A) and Batchwood Hall (B) Photograph of Batchwood Hall While the students were at the club, Steve had a number of hours of relaxation time. Sometimes he would wait at a lay-by on the one way road leading from the location, other times he would drive further afield and park up elsewhere, before returning in the early hours of the morning to pick the students back up. One night in late summer 2015 he had parked up in the usual close lay-by. It was somewhere between 1.30-3.30am and a very clear and still night. He got out of the coach to have a cigarette. Aerial map of the lay-by near Batchwood Hall He happened to look to the South East along the road. In the distance he could make out the sky above the centre of St Albans. He noticed a flattened disc-shaped object hovering over the roofs. Aerial map indicating the lay-by and its proximity to St Albans The main colour of the object could not be made out due to the time, but what drew his attention to it most was a line of blue-white coloured lights which were around its central rim. The object itself, or just the lights on it, were rotating in an anti-clockwise direction. Photograph along the road in the direction the UFO was seen in Steve was certain that the object was freely floating and not attached to any of the buildings. He initially thought it must be an advertising blimp, but it wasn’t the right shape for this, and it would seem very unlikely for a blimp with an LED display to be situated over St Albans in the middle of the night in the first place. Also the way the lights were rotating did not look like a programmed pattern, it genuinely looked like they were rotating. He estimated that if the object really was over St Albans centre as it appeared to be it would be about 50 feet across. It seemed to be quite low down like the orb had been, perhaps 100 feet up. He had his smartphone on him, but unfortunately it had ran out of charge, so he was unable to attempt to photograph or video the object. He continued to watch the disc for a number of minutes wondering what it could be. He then got back onto the coach, but could still see the object through the window. The object remained present in the sky for over an hour, and remained rooted to the spot. Steve considered driving the coach over there to take a closer look, but needed to wait for the students to come out of the club. At around 3.30am the club closed and he began driving the coach along the one way road, to head back around and pick them up. Suddenly he realised that the object was no longer present in the sky, it had completely vanished! He could not do much else besides pick up the students and start the drive back to Hemel Hempstead. This is a distant though intriguing sighting. It was clearly not an aeroplane as it was hovering motionless for an extended period of time. The rotating line of lights seemingly moving around the object put a patrol helicopter out of the question. Drones do not have rotating lights either, and also would not remain airborne for that length of time. I agree with Steve that an advertising blimp seems very unlikely given the location and time of night. Also if it was a blimp why would it have suddenly disappeared without trace? Even if the lights had been switched off, it is likely Steve would still have been able to make out the shape, and while it could have conceivably been hidden from view behind a cloud, he informed me that it was a very clear night. A Second Disc A number of months after the Batchwood Hall sighting Steve was once again driving a coach-load of students back to West Herts College. It was the early hours of the morning and he was heading East along Sandpit Lane, St Albans. The sun was just about to come up so there was a bit of light starting to appear in the sky. Aerial map of Sandpit Lane As the coach passed a housing estate Steve happened to glance to the left out of the passenger side window. Through gaps in the trees he caught glimpses of the red roofs of the houses. And above them hovering in the air was another disc-shaped object! It was still quite dark but it appeared to be a metallic grey colour. He estimates it was above 50 feet across. This time there were no rotating lights on the object, but it was lit up by a white glow from underneath. Photograph of the housing estate from Sandpit Lane He was only able to observe it for several seconds before it was lost from sight. Due to the fact that he had a coach full of students, and the fact that there were no nearby lay-bys he did not stop to continue watching the object. He did call out to the students asking if they had seen what he had seen, but they paid him no attention as many of them were either drunk or sleepy by that point. Steve was amazed that he had experienced a second disc sighting so soon after the other. There was nothing really linking the two sightings beyond the shape of the object. It could possibly have been the same craft, just with the lights switched off on this occasion, but this would just be speculation. As he only managed to view it for a few seconds, mundane explanations such as a balloon of some kind cannot be entirely ruled out, but it is still an interesting, if brief, sighting. Tracked by a Flying Triangle In late autumn 2015 Steve was driving in his Ford Focus Hatchback towards Hemel Hemstead coach station to begin a work shift. He was driving South along Stoke Road and had just left Bilsworth. It was mid-evening but due to the time of year already fully dark. It was a clear and still. He does not recall whether the stars were out or not. There were a few other vehicles on the road but it was quite quiet. As he drove along he glanced to his right out of the driver side window. Just beyond the line of trees that were alongside the road, he saw at a diagonal a triangle of three coloured lights in the air – one blue, one orange and one purple. They were at an elevation of about 45 degrees and appeared only about 20 feet away, just beyond the trees. He continued to drive and noted that the lights maintained their position to him, seemingly moving along at the same speed that he was driving at. They were constantly bright, and gave the distinct impression of being attached to a singular object as they did not move position with one another at all. Photograph of Stoke Road Steve drove for about 2.5 miles with the lights continuing to follow alongside his vehicle. He did not stop the car to see if they stopped too, or to attempt to capture the lights on camera, as he was on a tight schedule for his shift start. Suddenly without warning the lights suddenly veered towards the road. He caught sight of them passing approaching the car at a diagonal in his rear view mirror. They then flew directly over the roof of the car out of sight, before appearing again visible in the left side of the windscreen and continuing away to the South East! He watched them move away until they were blocked from sight by other trees. This is quite a compelling incident. The object could not have been a normal aircraft of any kind due to the colours and positioning of the lights, and was seemingly too large to be a drone or radio controlled model. Whatever it was it did appear to follow alongside Steve’s car for a period of time, although the road was relatively straight so this may have been just coincidental rather than it genuinely following him. As he did not attempt to stop or slow right down we have no way of knowing whether the object was actually matching his actions or whether it would have carried on ahead if he had done so. The positioning of the lights suggested that they were at the corners of a triangular shaped object, although the main body of the object was never seen by the witness due to the darkness. I have investigated many sightings of “Flying Triangles” before. They generally have corner lights of the same colour, but I have investigated a couple of other cases where each light was different, although not with exactly the same colour combination as was reported here. Telepathic Message One night in late 2015 Steve was parked in his car in Hemel Hemstead bus yard after having dropped off the students at the night club. He was feeling tired so decided to get some sleep by lying down on the back seat of the car, which was a little awkward. He lay there trying to drop off to sleep when suddenly he began to hear his name being called in his mind. He responded to this by responding in thought, asking “Who’s calling me?” At this he heard the voice state “We want you to know we're looking out for you and watching over you. We have some important information we have to tell you.” Steve accepted that some kind of communication was taking place and asked “What do you want to tell me?” The voice then imparted lots of information. It informed him that he is a hybrid, and that he was born into a human body placed into his Earth mother. It said that although he was born on Earth he is not from the Earth, that is is part of a royal bloodline and that he is an ambassador for Earth relations. He was told that he has a mission to fulfil, to expose the truth and try to get others to wake up to their presence. That the stereotype that all Reptilian beings are evil monsters isn’t true, and that there are good ones out there as well. Throughout this conversation Steve asked questions such as how long he has been here, how old he is and whether he has family back home, to which he got responses. After this information the voice suddenly stopped and he found himself alone again in the car. He did not view the experience as merely a dream or his imagination, he believed it had actually taken place. The incident got him to look back at his life and see it through new eyes. Coloured Orbs On a night in the winter of 2015 Steve was in Whipsnade for coach driving. He had a while to relax before he was required so decided to drive to a nearby beauty spot known as Dunstable Downs. He parked in the entrance to the National Trust centre on the B4541. Although the centre itself was closed after dark, there was enough space to park outside the closed gate. Aerial map of Dunstable Downs National Trust Centre Photograph of the entrance where Steve parked Steve got out to stretch his legs and breathe the cool air. It was a very clear and still night. To the South East of his location was a number of open fields separated by lines of trees and hedgerows. Seemingly over a particular field alongside Isle Of Wight Lane he suddenly noticed a red orb of light briefly appear above the tree tops. It was then joined by a second orange coloured orb. The orbs were visible for a number of seconds before descending down behind the trees. But a moment later they reappeared. Steve watched them for a number of minutes as they briefly appeared and disappeared in an erratic fashion. After a while he thought to himself “I’ve got to find out what’s happening behind these trees.” He got back in his car, drove a short distance North along the B4541 then turned right onto Isle Of Wight Lane. He then drove along the lane until he arrived alongside the field where he believed the lights were situated. There weren’t any lay-bys near to the field, but there was a small cut-in alongside a gap in the hedgerow. He pulled up and disembarked to see if he could once again spot the orbs. Looking across the field he noticed a red and amber glow coming from about half way across. For an unknown reason he began to get very apprehensive of the situation, like he was not supposed to be there. This feeling grew stronger and stronger, and this, combined with the fact that the field had only recently been ploughed and was very muddy, caused him to make the decision not to get any closer. The sensation that he was not welcome was also the reason he did not attempt to take any photographs or videos. He just felt that he should get away from the location as quickly as possible. He jumped back in the car, then had a job turning it round in the narrow lane. He then drove to a new location elsewhere well away from the activity in the field. As he did he began to feel the negativity inside him begin to subside. This is an intriguing sighting. Clearly the orbs were not normal aircraft of any kind, and the repeated movements they were initially making tends to put lit inflatables or Chinese lanterns out of the picture. I asked Steve if it could have been some kids throwing lit toys up into the air, but he said that the orbs did not immediately drift down once they’d appeared, they would hover motionless for a number of seconds before dropping down again. The possibility that the objects were two drones, one lit with red lights, one with orange lights, cannot be fully ruled out. It would seem odd for anyone to be flying drones in the middle of the night in such a rural location, but not impossible. Steve did not approach the glowing light in the field, so was not able to categorically identify the source. Formation Of Lights After having many experiences within 2014 and 2015, Steve experienced no further incidents of note until 2023. It was early evening on 8th August. He was standing outside his house on Sandhill Road, Northampton having a cigarette. It was a pleasant evening, dry and still, with a clear sky. There were no other pedestrians around at the time. Steve happened to look up into the sky to the South East. It was now that he noticed what appeared to be a cluster of coloured lights. There seemed to be a pink coloured light at the centre, surrounded by a triangle of pale green coloured lights. They were all moving on a straight course and heading towards his location. As they did not deviate from one another it gave the impression that they were multiple lights attached to a single object, although the main body of this object was not really visible. Intrigued by what he was looking at, Steve took a photograph of the lights on his smartphone: He then started recording on video, and watched them for a couple of minutes as they slowly moved on a gradual arc across the sky. Unfortunately he informed me that this footage was lost due to his recent clean out of Google Photos. There was no detectable sound coming from the lights at any point of the sighting. They maintained their positioning to one another throughout, and eventually vanished into the distance. This is an unusual sighting for various reasons. The lights and their configuration do not match those of a normal aircraft. They do not really coincide with those of a drone either, at least a standard one. Here is a zooomed image of the lights: The same zoomed image with edge find: I did wonder initially whether they could have been a number of tethered balloons reflecting the evening sunlight and drifting across the sky. However with balloons you would expect some kind of rotation or change in altitude due to air currents, but neither of these were observed. Steve is convinced that the lights were only a few hundred feet up. At this distance the main shape of the object would have been visible, which means that either they were four separate orbs flying in formation, or that for whatever reason the main body of the object was invisible, but the lights on it visible. Snake Man Steve regularly wakes up early in the morning and often walks down to his local convenience store, Best One, on Weedon Road, a short distance from his house. Around 5am on 31st August 2023 he decided to head down to the store to buy a drink and some cigarettes. It was a very clear morning, but due to the time of day very quiet. Aerial map showing the walk from Sandhill Road to the convenience store As he approached the shop he noticed a couple of men standing on the pavement ahead. They appeared to be in their 30s and were wearing normal casual clothing. As he walked past the men one of them suddenly turned and stared straight at him. He then heard a telepathic voice in his mind which exclaimed “Oh look, snake man!” The man then turned back to the other and they both started to laugh. Photograph of Best One The voice sounded male but quite sinister in emotion. Steve felt quite threatened by what had just happened, so as quick as possible reached and walked inside the shop. When he came back out a number of minutes later the two men were no longer there. What took place here sounds quite un-nerving, and I can understand why he entered the shop as soon as possible rather than attempt to speak with the men. Exactly who they could have been is down to interpretation, but the fact that the message Steve received seemed to be telepathic instead of audible implies that they may have not been human. If so then exactly what they meant by this message is unknown, although it could well be referring to the implied Reptilian heritage which he was informed about via the telepathic message he received in 2015. Conclusions Steve has had some varied and sometimes unusual experiences over the years. The fact that his apparent abduction took place merely days after his initial UFO sighting certainly suggests that the two incidents were linked. It is interesting that he appeared to have a number of repeated UFO sightings and other experiences all within 2015. This could have merely been coincidental, perhaps it was due to all the rural driving he was doing that year, which made it more likely he would see things in the sky. Most of the sightings were distant, it was only the Flying Triangle sighting which suggested direct interaction of any kind. His recent sighting of the formation of unusual coloured lights is intriguing, although too small or distant to make any definite conclusions on. There is also the bizarre telepathic message incident which happened within days of this sighting, which can certainly be interpreted in a number of different ways. Steve may continue to have unusual incidents occur, and if he decides to keep in touch this report may be updated with them going forward. If you have any information regarding any of his experiences please get in touch. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2026

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 13/09/2023 Last Updated: 08/09/2026 Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used In September 2023 I spoke with one of mine and my wife’s friends, “Rebecca” about a couple of incidents while discussing the subject of UFOs. The first of these involved a potential period of missing time which was experienced by herself and her mother back in 2008. Incident Details Rebecca is unaware of the precise date when the incident took place, but feels that it was early summertime. She was 32 years old at the time, and lived with her children in a house at Dymchurch, Kent. Her mother “Natalie” lived nearby. On the day in question, she and Natalie had driven East along the coast to Dover to pick up a TV cabinet. Aerial map showing Dymchurch (A) and Dover (B) It was between 1-2pm and they were on their return trip, with a view to be home by 3pm so Rebecca could pick up her children from school. This was a route they were very familiar with and had driven many times before. The route led West from Dover along the A20 until they reached Folkestone. They would then join the M20 until they reached Hythe. After this they would leave the road and take country roads South West through various villages until they reached Dymchurch. The weather was pleasant and sunny but not particularly hot. They were on the A20 and about two thirds of the way towards Folkestone. There were lots of other vehicles on the road heading in both directions. Rebecca was chatting with her mother about cooking Spaghetti Bolognese. Aerial map of the A20 showing the route the witnesses took along it Example photograph of the A20 All of a sudden she felt strange, a tingling sensation like static electricity. At the same time she looked out of the passenger side of the windscreen and realised she did not recognise the surroundings. They were no longer on the A20 motorway! They appeared to be travelling along a much narrower country road barely wide enough to pass other vehicles on, with trees and fields either side of it. As she thought to herself “Where are we?” Natalie pulled over and stopped the car. It was at this moment that she knew that her mother had also realised what had happened, at precisely the same moment as herself. They both sat there in silence staring out of the windows. Rebecca broke the silence by asking “What’s going on?” Natalie replied “I don’t know!” She asked “Where are we?” Again her mother replied “I don’t know!” They sat there in the parked car for about five minutes, after which her mother said “We’ve got to find out where we are.” She started driving the car along the road again until she saw some signs which pointed back to Folkestone junction. It took quite a while to reach the junction and get back on track with their journey. From this length of time this took they estimated that they had ended up about 15 miles North of the A20, with no explanation at all as to how they got there. Photograph of the junction at Folkestone Even though they would usually join the M20 at this point, they felt uneasy about doing so after what had taken place, and decided instead to avoid the motorway for the rest of the route home and travelled along quieter lanes until arriving home. As they continued their drive Rebecca began to get a very strong headache. She mentioned this to Natalie, and she too confirmed that she too also had the same. Once back at her mother’s house, Rebecca checked the clock and found that it was not yet 3pm so they had got back roughly the time they’d expected to, taking into account the additional drive time to get back to Folkestone. She helped her mum unload the TV cabinet and then went to pick up her kids from school. She and her mother’s headaches lasted for the remainder of the day and only subsided after they had both gone off to sleep and woken the following morning. Incident Analysis This is a truly fascinating and mysterious event, and one which cannot be easily explained away. If Natalie was driving an unfamiliar route involving numerous turns then this could have been put down to her accidentally taking a wrong turn somewhere and ending up where she didn’t expect. However both Natalie and Rebecca had driven this route many times before, it was their trusted way of driving back from Dover. In addition to this they were on a main road. In order for them to have ended up where they did they would have had to have purposely left the A20 at some point via a junction, yet neither of them has any memory of doing so. There is the mental state known as “Highway Hypnosis” (sometimes referred to as White Line Fever). This is something most drivers have experienced at one point or another, and is where it is possible to “zone out” and drive along a road or roads without remembering doing so. However in this situation the individual would instinctively drive the way they were intending to drive and not deviate from this route. Other factors which point away from either of these two explanations are the fact that Rebecca and Natalie appeared to realise they were no longer on the A20 at exactly the same moment, the tingling sensation which Rebecca felt at the same time as this realisation, and the strong headaches they both developed afterwards. I have investigated numerous cases involving abductions from vehicles. In these incidents the driver will often come round to find themselves either driving or parked up on a different road to which they were on previously. The implication is that in some instances the vehicle is also taken, and there are cases on record where this very much seems to have been what happened. Perhaps this is what occurred here. If so this might explain the sudden feeling of static electricity that Rebecca felt. Perhaps this feeling was from a nearby craft or whatever energy was used to return them to the ground. Headaches are also a common after effect of contact, again suggesting that they may have been taken. If so then this could not have been for very long, as they were still back home in time for Rebecca to pick up her children. If we assume that this is what happened here, then there is the issue that the incident took place on a sunny afternoon in a busy location. You may ask how this would be possible without other drivers on the road being aware of it. Surely if this was observed by anyone else nearby they would have reported it to someone? But there are often unusual elements of time distortion with contact. Perhaps other nearby drivers did see it occur but had their memories wiped. Or perhaps time itself was halted and they were unaware of the sudden disappearance of the car. One thing that is certain is that the incident left a lasting impression on both Rebecca and her mother. She informed me that Natalie is quite sceptical of the world of UFOs and the paranormal, however she is clearly troubled by what took place even to this day. She says that sometimes her mother brings it up in conversation, asking “Remember that time when we were abducted?” depsite being largely sceptical of the subject as a whole. I absolutely trust Rebecca’s testimony of what took place, but the mystery of what happened remains. I am awaiting a testimonial statement from Natalie which should be added to this report in the near future. If you have any information which may shed some light on this please contact me via the BUFOG website. Rebecca also had a (probably unrelated) sighting of a Flying Triangle in 2015. This has been written up as a separate report here Copyright Dave Hodrien 2026

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).” Aerial map of the housing estate alongside Calvert Lane “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. Aerial map of the A166 showing probable location of the sighting Photograph of the A166 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. Photograph of the approximate sighting location in the direction the object was seen “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.” Aerial map indicating estimated position of the witness (A) and location of former RAF Driffield, previously RAF Kirkburn (B) “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.” Aerial map showing Wetwang (A) and Tibthorpe (B) “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.” Aerial map showing the approximate location of the sighting showing the direction of travel Photograph of the hill just North of 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.” Estimated path of the orb “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.” Aerial map of the B1248 (Station Road) indicating the approximate position of the witness and direction lights were in Photograph of Station Road in the direction the lights were seen “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.” Aerial map showing the estimated position of the orb and its flight path “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: https://www.space.com/spacex-rocket-launches-22-starlink-satellites-success 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.” Aerial map of the B1248 indicating the approximate location of the witness and path of the creature Photograph of the B1248 where the animal walked across “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.” Aerial map of York RoA166 indicating the approximate position of the witness Photograph of the A166 in the direction the lights were seen “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. Aerial map indicating Wetwang (A), Skipsea (B) and Fraisthorpe (C) “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.” Aerial map of Wike Ridge Lane indicating approximate location of the vehicle 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.” Photograph of the field where the creature was observed "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.’ Witness drawing of the UFO “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.” Aerial map of Pickering Road 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.” Aerial map of B1248 indicating the approximate location of the sighting “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.” Photograph of the coppice of trees where the orbs were situated “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.” Aerial map of B1248 indicating the position of the witness Photograph of the gap in the hedgerow “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

Birmingham UFO Group Case Report Author: Dave Hodrien Release Date: 01/09/2026 Last Updated: 02/09/2026 Note: For reasons of anonymity pseudonyms have been used "Paul" reached out BUFOG on 3rd August 2026 via our website’s sighting report form. He stated that he had taken a couple of photographs of his back garden, and when he checked the images a few days later one of them appeared to have a figure on it which he did not see at the time. He wanted our opinion on what the photograph showed. I got back in touch with him to ask for further details via numerous E-Mails, and also asked for some later photos to be taken and sent to me, which Paul was more than happy to comply with. Using the information and additional photos I then conducted an analysis of the original two images sent. The Photographs Paul lives on Alwynn Walk, Erdington, Birmingham. Aerial map of Alwynn Walk In July 2026 a young lady from Canada moved in next door. Her father visited for a fortnight to help clear the passageway in the back garden which had become overgrown with bushes. At 4:41pm on 15th July Paul decided to take a couple of photographs from an upstairs window so after the work was finished he could compare the difference. Paul says that he has a habit of taking two photographs in case one of them turns out blurred. He also mentioned that the workers were dressed in black and were not in shot when he took the photos. Below are the two photographs: Paul did not check the photos for several days, but when he did he noticed what appeared to be a figure of some kind in the first image: It wasn’t apparent to him what the figure was, and he did not recall seeing it when he took the photograph. This prompted him to get in touch with BUFOG a couple of weeks later. Photographic Analysis I first used an online Exif metadata viewer to check the metadata behind the two images. Below is the metadata for the first image: I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the photos but when photographs are altered in image editing software, lots of the metadata values and their order gets changed. This can be used to determine if a photo is genuine or not. Although it is possible to over-write metadata, it is very difficult to do this 100% accurately, and most people don’t even know that metadata exists, let alone how to alter it. The highlighted Make, Model and Device Type metadata values show that this photograph was taken on a Samsung smartphone and have not been tampered with using software. The DateTimeOriginal and TimeStamp values give the precise date and time that it was taken. The second photograph's metadata is almost identical, but confirms that the second shot was taken 5 seconds after the first: With the authenticity of the photographs confirmed, it was now time to establish what they did or didn’t show. I initially suspected that the “head” of the figure was the only anomaly, with it clearly being present in the first image but gone in the second. I thought that the “body” of the figure may have just been the roof of the shed partially hidden by vegetation In late August I asked Paul to send me an additional photograph showing the same location: From this later image it is clear that the body of the figure was not the roof of the shed. It is also clear that there are no white coloured garden ornaments/furnishings which could have been mis-interpreted as a figure. Below is a zoomed view of the area where the figure is situated from each photograph side by side: From this comparison it can be seen that both the “head” and “body” are part of the same thing, and that they move to the left between the two photographs. Paul was mistaken that the figure was only present in the first image, it is in both, it’s just more hidden from view in the second shot. With the figure being more visible in the first of the two images I focused on this for the remainder of the analysis. I wondered if it was someone wearing white clothing, perhaps wearing a cap to shelter from the bright sunshine, with the black area being a shadow from the peak of the this cap/ Below is a zoomed view of the “head” of the figure: It is possible to see what looks like a white peaked cap facing to the left: It is also possible to see what may be a mouth visible below the cap: Lastly it is possible to see what may be an ear and hairline: I decided to see what Chat GPT made of the two images. It too went along with this as the most likely explanation: Chat GPT noted that the images were over-exposed due to the bright sunlight, leading to some of the detail being lost. I decided to feed the zoomed image of the “head” into it, informed it that it was over-exposed and asked it to fix the image. If you are still finding it hard to see the head of a person in a white cap, then the below screen grab will likely change your mind: You’d be forgiven for thinking that the above proves beyond any doubt that the photograph shows a man in white clothes wearing a peaked cap. However it’s important to note that this is just Chat GPT’s interpretation of what the image shows, it has not actually removed the over-exposure from the photograph (this is impossible). To prove this point, I also fed the zoomed view of the whole figure into Chat GPT too, just to see whether it would come up with a similar image. Instead I got the following: As you can see, when provided the whole figure, Chat GPT thought that the image shows a strange humanoid swan-like animal, and therefore rendered it as such! This highlights the fact that analysis performed by Large Language Models like Chat GPT cannot be taken at face value. I reached out to Paul to share my findings with him. His response was as follows: "The bushes were full of thorns so no one could walk through them we haven't been able to exit the back of our house because the pathways were overgrown. The father was wearing a black t-shirt and black shorts, no hat." However, it can be seen from the later photograph that Paul sent me that there is an obvious break in the fence where two panels have separated, and that there is a public footpath on the opposite side of the fence. I suggested to him that someone may have entered the garden through this gap in the fence. He sent a further response: "I watched the father walk away out of sight before I took the photos so if someone had come through the hole in the fence I would have seen them. And why walk through the bushes. the thorns would scratch you to bits. I know, I've tried to get past in the back passage." While this additional information does point away from the figure being the father helping remove the bushes from the passageway, I feel that there is still the possibility that someone sneaked through the gap in the fence un-noticed, just prior to Paul taking the photographs. Maybe he was attempting to break in, or maybe he just wanted somewhere to quickly go to the toilet out of sight of the public eye, but unaware Paul was standing in the upstairs window. Conclusions I am unaware of humanoid swan creatures in the world of cryptozoology, and therefore do not believe that this is what the image shows. However, Chat GPT’s initial interpretation, and cleaned up zoom of the head of the figure both echo my thoughts on the photograph. I feel that the most likely explanation is a man wearing white including a peaked cap who was not noticed at the time by Paul when he took the photographs. This case is somewhat reminiscent of the infamous “Solway Firth Spaceman” photograph taken on 23rd May 1964. A man from Carlisle named Jim Templeton took several photographs of his daughter while on a trip to Burgh Marsh. When the photos were developed he was shocked to see what looked like an astronaut in the background: Numerous researchers have looked into the photograph and the general consensus is that it was actually Jim’s wife who had accidentally wandered into the shot. It is known from other photos taken on the same day that she was wearing a light blue dress. It is likely that the colour was washed out due to over-exposure caused by the sun, just like the images discussed in this report. It is also theorised that she was facing away from the camera, giving the impression of the “visor” of the astronaut’s helmet, and accounting for the odd shape of the arms. Regarding the photos Paul took, while he is convinced that the figure was not his neighbour's father, the idea that it was someone sneaking through the gap in the fence cannot be ruled out. I feel that currently this is the most likely explanation. Paul informed me that the father will be back before the winter to install a new fence, and when he does he will show him the photographs and ask him to confirm whether it's him or not. If he gets back in touch with any further information this report will be updated as necessary. Copyright Dave Hodrien 2026