Season 1, Episode 2: Unwanted Visitors/Strange Sightings

Unwanted Visitors:

This investigation was one of the strangest things I have seen.  I wish I could find a simple video snippet off this thing walking across the client's yard but I did find a picture:

One blogger commented that it was just a Snowy Egret:

Possible?  I suppose.  When I did the research on the bird they do live in the Fresno, CA area where the case is filmed but when I watched the film again, I just don't see it.  Maybe this is one of those times where all I can see is this alien-like figure and can't see it for what it actually is.  The surveillance video is grainy, making it hard to see clearly what it could be.  When the team (Bill, Jael and Larry) tries to recreate the figure as a puppet and a costumed child they cannot recreate it successfully.  It just doesn't mimic what is on the surveillance video.   Its pretty clear to me that they only way Jose (the client) could have hoaxed this was with CGI or some technology but why create a creature like that??  Only to spike the interest of the paranormal world?  Seems to me that if it was a hoax, he did not do it; he was the one hoaxed.  And again, why?  Why Jose?  If I had been the one to create a hoax like that, I would come out loud and proud: "look what I made!"  I would personally LOVE to see the team re-visit this case. Maybe if they had more time the team could figure out another way to re-create it. I think the strangest thing about this case is that it doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before and if its "alien" why haven't we seen this type of creature reported before...or since?

The final part of this case was a night time investigation in a nearby field where the "creature" could have come from.  Throughout the night cameras were shutting off, walk-talkie batteries suddenly died, a camera tipped over on its own, and some strange electrical noises could be heard.  Weird stuff.  Bill and Jael then see something on the thermal camera.  I wish they had walked closer to the area to get a better look but when they walked over to the area after the creatures left the point the view, there was no sign of anything besides a track leading to the water, which looked like something dragging through the grass.  Huh?

Back to the Snowy Egret.  Doing more research on the bird, it seems like it would live in the kind of place that the team was doing the night investigation.  They feed on snakes, mice, fish, etc and it would make sense that they could be hunting at night.  If you listen to a sound byte of the bird call, it could most definitely explain the strange sounds the team heard.  They also stand high enough to account for the thermal hits.  And considering how tall these birds are, they may even leave those strange "dragging" prints in the grass.  That leaves all of the weird technical failures and mishaps.  Maybe just the problem with investigating out in the middle of nowhere?  Then again, Jael has had her share of remote investigations on Destination Truth and could have said that was normal...if it was.

All in all, possible explanations, but still strange and still one of my favorite cases!

Strange Sightings:

The other team (Ben, Austin, and Chi-Lan) invesigates another UFO sighting case in Lake Havasu, AZ.  Sorry, but I have to say it was obviously a balloon from the start.  The way this "UFO" was dancing around in the air just seemed like it had to be something logical.  I'm no UFO expert but it seemed phishy before the investigation even started.  The final blow to this investigation was the reports from government officials in the area (State Park Rangers) who confirmed that it was only a balloon and possibly from a movie set being filmed at the time.  I have to ask, and I hope one of the team members can answer this for me: why wasn't that phone call made before shooting?  Wouldn't you have picked a better video to investigate?  Personally, I would have gone with the Gettysburg ghost!  But then again, any excuse to visit Gettysburg is good by me  :-)