Reports from the Void: 'We Saw a Black Creature'

The Singular Fortean Society received the following email on November 22nd, 2020.

On Friday night, November 20th, my son and I picked up my daughter and niece from their jobs at a daycare. It was around 6:15 at night.
We had just pulled out of the daycare parking lot and made a right onto Woodland Avenue in Springfield, [Pennsylvania], Delaware County. As we approached the light, we saw a black creature fly by at a very fast speed and then [it] just seemed to vanish quickly, maybe into the trees. It all happened in a matter of seconds.
My daughter saw that it had large wings, large yellow eyes, and lizard-like legs that looked backwards. My niece saw the large black wings. My son and I saw a large black shape. It was blacker than the night.
My niece was the first to report seeing the creature. If she hadn’t said something, I think the rest of us might have thought we were seeing things. We probably would have just tried to forget it at that point. I don’t have a clue what we could have seen.
It’s a very suburban area and not too far from Philly. There are houses , schools, and businesses in this area. It is very populated, but the area where we spotted the creature has a small forested area and there might be a little creek there. But even so, there are houses, the daycare, and a restaurant right where we saw the creature. It was so strange. Has anyone else reported any sightings in the Philly area?

Investigator Tobias Wayland contacted the witness to ask if she would be willing to answer some follow-up questions.

In response, the witness said, “If you’d like to email me some questions, I’d be happy to answer them. However, I don’t know how much more information I could give you. The incident happened in a matter of seconds. I probably told you everything that occurred.”

Wayland emailed a list of questions, but received no further response.

The description given of the creature resembles a great blue heron, which have a thriving population in Pennsylvania. Great blue herons stand up to four feet tall with wingspans of up to seven feet, and have yellow eyes. Many think of herons as primarily daytime birds, but great blue herons have eyes well-adapted to darkness and will hunt at night. Seen quickly in the dark, they may be easily misidentified as something far stranger.

The only other report received by the Singular Fortean Society in the area was from Levittown, Pennsylvania, roughly 50 miles northeast of Springfield. However, in that report, the witness described a creature that “had the body of a human, but it had wings." No such humanoid attributes were noted in the above report.

Reports from the Void is a repository to share those stories for which we do not have enough information to make a full report. This is usually because of little or no communication from the witness following their initial submission. The Singular Fortean Society will always provide as much information as possible regarding any correspondence during our attempts to speak with those involved.

This series is meant only to present you with the full breadth of the information sent to us, and makes no judgments towards the veracity of any stories shared within it.

To report your own encounter with the impossible, reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

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