This evening September 15th, 2011 around 6:30 pm we had a power outage here in Port Jefferson, NY. After seeing a local LIPA truck near Mather Hospital earlier, I assumed they were fixing the lines, so I ended up going outside to see what was up and bumped into two neighbors that came out for a walk to see what was happening as well. It is amazing when the power goes out, people actually talk to each other, go figure. We were talking about the power lines and the damage from hurricane Irene and how burying the power lines would potentially lessen the occurrences of power outages and in the process preserve nature’s views. We were talking about nature and local wildlife, deers and such, and my November 11th 2008 at 11:30 pm amazing sighting of an eastern cougar (mountain lion) on our property here in Port Jefferson. I will call him the Port Jeff Panther, or the Puma of Port Jefferson, or Casey the Cougar after yours truly. I did report this amazing sighting to New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation, but nothing came of it to my knowledge, I hoped he would have been be protected and re-released into the wild. I was mentioning to the guys about the recent mountain lion sightings in Greenwich Connecticut and the one cougar that was hit and killed by an SUV in June across the Long Island Sound in Milford Connecticut this summer; Google it.

As I was looking up at the power lines talking about what would appear to be strange unusual sittings of large cats, low and behold, as I was saying that, I witnessed what appeared to be a small Pterodactyl. You say what? A small dinosaur bird, I swear it kind of looked like it. It was not a hawk, as I have see plenty in Southern New Jersey, some very large that cast huge shadows when flying above, what a sight! But this wasn’t even close; this had a huge wing span of over 5 feet. It was darkish brown and looked like it could have been a pelican. A pelican right above the treetops that swooped and glided above and over me and the neighbors, of course the older guys were facing the opposite direction and were too slow to turn around and see it. I was like “did you guys see that” and I chased it, then it flew out of view over the trees. Holy cow! What was that? A huge bird that looked like a Pterodactyl or pelican? Unreal, and I told the guys they needed to pay attention to their surroundings even in suburbia, and always look up; you never know what you might see.

After we went back to our houses and once the power came back on, I hit the computer and did a little research to find out what type of bird it was. Turns out, it was most likely an Eastern Brown Pelican, cool! What they’re doing on the North Shore of Long Island, I don’t know, but maybe global warming and climate change is to blame, and maybe the hurricanes off the Atlantic coast has brought them this far north extending their range. Why am I seeing these unusual sighting you ask, well I am known for my keen eye and my situational awareness. Just keep your eyes pealed; you never know what you will see, but first you need to get off the computer and go outside.

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