More Orb Strangeness

I hate to dwell on the idea of the orbs, but I have something new and unexpected for you. I took these pictures within an hour of writing this post. Yesterday I showed you a picture from the same general direction as the one above. It showed perhaps dozens of orbs floating around. I purposely did not clean my camera lens since then because I wanted to see if I could reproduce the same results tonight.

I couldn't reproduce the exact same thing. Instead of so many orbs, there was only this one very bright orb floating in a very suspicious place. This time instead of the gray color of all the others, this one is a tan color. It's hovering right in the same direction of a tree we cut down last week. I'm not sure what to make of that. We cut down that particular tree to make room for my neighbor's future garden. I felt bad about it when we did it, and I'm feeling superstitiously strange about it now.

this orb was so bright that I saw it on my camera's display screen after I took the picture. There are no light sources from that direction, and it is a cloudy night. It was very dark out there tonight. I was thinking that the orb effect from last night was possibly being caused by moonlight, but I don't know where this very bright orb came from. I am mystified.

The first picture was taken as I faced eastward. In this second one I am facing south. As you can see, there is another orb that is suspiciously close to the same area of the picture as the first one. That could indicate that it is the camera lens after all. But I examined the two over and over, and they are not really in the same spot. If you enlarge the pictures you'll see they aren't as close as they look in the post.

Plus if you take a closer look at this second picture you will see that this orb has a bit of motion blur. Either it was moving or my camera was moving. I don't think a spot on my camera lens would show motion blur even while moving the camera. Trying to take pictures at night can easily produce motion blur while trying to focus on still objects, but nothing else in the shot is blurred. This could be easily explained, but not by me.

Another thing I want to add is that Isabella seemed to be in an unusual hurry to leave this area of the property. On most nights she likes coming down here to look around. Usually I have to pull her away, but on this night she kept trying to pull me away. There could have been many reasons for this, but I don't know what they might be in this case.
 

I took this last picture toward the east again. I tried to get a similar perspective as the first picture in yesterday's post. There are no orbs in this one, not even in the same area as the other two above. There is a distant light source to the middle left in this picture, so that light is not an orb. I took some other pictures, and they also showed no orbs. Some were before, between, and after the two pictures that do have orbs.

I had so much I wanted to write about this time, including Blogger's new commenting system where you can reply to other comments, but this new orb development is too fascinating to just gloss over. This story has to be told until I either find a solution or the orbs finally disappear.

I haven't gone back to that end of the property since I took these pictures because Isabella now refuses to go back outside. Her nightly pee walks are the reason I've been going out there. And I think I don't really want to go out there tonight if she's not with me. I don't know what's going to happen next, but I'm very curious about it.


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The Mystery Of The Orbs

I've been taking pictures these last few nights to try to encounter a nocturnal animal or two, but instead I encountered something very different and mysterious. Orbs! This is the next best thing to getting a Bigfoot on camera! I'm not the first person to capture these mysterious objects on film, but this is the first time for me.

You may have to click on the pictures to get a better look. I still have the originals on my computer, which are the best quality at 4000x3000, but I had to shrink them down to 800x600 to save space for the blog. I wish I could show you the originals, but this is the way it has to be. I do have a better version of the first picture over at Nature Center Magazine today that we're featuring as a Free Wallpaper.

So, what are orbs? I don't know if anyone knows for sure. There are plenty of scientific explanations for orbs. some say they are artifacts caused by digital cameras, but others say a digital camera would make these artifacts more squared off. Some say they are nothing more than dust reflections, but others ask why then are they not seen all the time in the same spot. Just for fun, let's take a look at the less scientific reasons now.

Many people believe that orbs are actually floating ghosts or spirits in the form of balls of light. Others believe that they are not spirits at all, but that they are really a strange kind of energy being. For more of this type of explanation of orbs, go here. I don't know what I really believe because I don't have enough information to make a definite conclusion.

What I do know is that I've been taking nighttime pictures at the edges of my property for several nights now and I never saw these orbs in my pictures until last night. Have I done something different? No. I've taken the same pictures as always.

The reason I took the pictures you see here is because I heard some strange rustling sounds in the weeds so I pointed the camera in the direction of the noises hoping to get something good. I didn't get the wild animal I was expecting, but I think these orbs are even more fun.

So what do you think these orbs are? Did I go out at night and find glowing spirit forms coming close to investigate me? Or do you think a more scientific explanation makes more sense? Maybe they are fairies? Will I go out one too many times only to find myself mysteriously transported to another world where these orbs came from. Maybe I'll be trapped there forever. I guess we'll find out.


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The Everynight Adventurer

These pictures are my first attempt to get some good pictures at night. I tried a few things like changing the camera settings to nighttime mode, but none of them have worked so far. The only thing that works is to use the flash. I guess there has to be at least some light.

I haven't heard any animal sounds out there tonight so far, so I haven't tried to record any video. I'll try that if I go back out and hear any snuffling out there in the darkness. The camera usually picks up sound pretty good, and it's always quiet out here otherwise.

This first picture shows one of my outer buildings on the property. It's really just a rundown shed that I haven't even tried to explore yet, but I'll probably investigate the inside next spring. I'm in no hurry because i have too many other things to do right now.

In the background of this picture is the ravine at the edge of the property. There's a creek at the bottom of the ravine. I don't like to get any closer to it in the dark because it's a long fall to the bottom, and I don't know if I could climb out of it even in the daytime.

My dad used to use a water pump to get water from the creek to water his garden that he had nearby. I don't know if the pump is still around, but I'll do the same if I can find it. He did it that way because the garden is too far from the house to get water from there. It can be done, but you need a very long hose.

If it was daylight in this last one, you'd be able to see the large pile of firewood I've been gathering back here. This is far from the house as well, but the wood is still green, so we leave it back here out of the way to dry out until next year. I've been using some of the green wood though because my stove burns it very well.

This is the area where I hear most of the smaller animal sounds. I don't go back there while it's dark because I can't see very well there and I don't want to get too close to those animals in that darkness. They can see much better than I can, and I don't want to make them angry. Isabella doesn't like it back here while it's dark.

I'll go back out to try again with the camera, but maybe not for another few posts or so. Nighttime is good, but I like the light of day jjust a little bit better. Talk to ya next time!


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They Only Come Out At Night

When it gets dark I take my dog out for walks about every hour or two for the rest of the night until it's time for bed. Isabella loves her nighttime walks, and they keep her from ever having any accidents in the house. But there are things with us out there in the night.

I've been hearing their calls to the Moon for the last few nights that we've been out. It's the howls of coyotes that I've been hearing. Isabella always cocks her head to one side whenever she hears the howls. I tell her it's the call of the wild and to try to ignore it.

The sounds always come from the distant west. The howls of coyotes sound a little bit different than dog howls. One howl is always answered by others when we hear them. Dogs seem to have deeper voices than coyotes. Whenever I hear those coyote howls I stay extra watchful when I'm at the edges of the darker areas out there, and I make sure the sounds I hear are only in the distance. That way our nighttime walks stay reasonably safe.

I wish the camera could see a little better in the dark. I'd give you some better pictures of the things we see out there. Maybe I'll experiment a little bit more. Nighttime has much to offer that the day just can't. The sights and the sounds, especially the sounds, that are out there are something to behold. I stay away from most sounds I hear out there, but I'd love to share some audio with you.

It would be a great adventure for me to get a picture of a coyote, but predators like these are something to stay away from, especially out there alone. Predators of any kind are the animals that first inspired tales of monsters, and I do not want to come face to face with a monster in the night. That's for someone more experienced.

But it's a thrilling idea. Isabella hears the call of the wild, and she doesn't like it at all. It always makes her more alert, but also very concerned. She always gives me a worried look when those howls come out of the night. I think I'll always be sure to take her advice to stay on guard.


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Children Of The Night

At night I hear sounds; strange sounds I've never heard before coming from out of the darkness all around me. When the darkness comes, it's time for me to go outside and walk my dog. I do this a few times every night. Why would I do this with such odd sounds floating to me from out of the night?

I do it because my poor dog has a bit of a weak bladder. She knows when she has to go, and she lets me know that it's time to go out. But when she has to go, she really has to go. So I get out her leash and go outside into the night, and into the midst of the sounds coming from the darkness.

"What kinds of sounds are they," you ask. Well, they are sounds I've never heard at night near my home before. To be more specific, some are the sounds of howling, and there are also other animalistic sounds. "Aaawww," is the shouted sounds I hear coming from the south.

So do I know what is making these strange sounds? Well, of course I do. Some of the howling sounds are being made by coyotes. There are coyotes in this area. Most farmers around here hate them very much, especially if the farmers have chickens. Coyotes will mostly stay away, but I don't really want to encounter them.

The other sounds that come from the south are actually quite a bit more ordinary. Those sounds are being made by cows. Most of us, at least us here in America, think of the sound cows make as, "moo", but they really sound like what I described above.

All of these sounds are very different from the sounds of the city that I'm used to. In the city I would hear the sounds of cars going by instead of cows mooing. Instead of the howling of coyotes, I would hear the occasional sound of gunfire. And now instead of seeing other houses all around, I see trees outnumbering the houses by quite a bit.

Now when I take my dog out for a walk late at night I very rarely see another person out there. I go out to the end of the road and look up at the stars. Even with the occasional sounds of animals in the air, the night is such a peaceful place to be.

"Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make." - Dracula