The Creature of Country Estates

[Gaiano]

Hello. My twin brother and I have recently been spotting something rather unusual in my mobile home park. It appears to be a rather large bat or an owl, both of which would be unusual for the area that I live in. We've never directly seen it's entire body, though.

The first encounter with it was one night after taking my dogs to go pee. I was turned around when my brother shouted. He'd said he thought saw a relatively large bird fly out from under our roof above the porch, but birds are not usually nocturnal unless they are owls. And owl would be VERY rare for the area, especially since there are no signs of owls anywhere. No trees large enough to home it and no evidence of gross half-digested owl waste.

I saw it the second time, though. I'd been walking with a flash light down to my friend's house (it gets dark when the fairgrounds and airport aren't blasting their lights at us). I quickly flashed the light up to the top of a mobile home roof and I saw what was very clearly a white wing swiftly move out of the light. It moved too fast to see if it had feathers or not.

The third encounter was when I heard a shriek come from my roof. It sounded like some sort of bird or something, but I wasn't sure. I don't think it was a bat because bats simply don't get that big.

I honestly don't think it's anything paranormal. But I really want to know what it is, I don't think its an owl nor a bat.....I'm not crazy by the way

[ferox1012]

Good afternoon[smile].
What you are describing sounds like a Barn Owl[unless that wing looked white colored just because of the brightness of your light when you beamed it's wing to get a look at it.].
Just how large/small of an animal are we talking about here? What is it's wingspan? A few feet from wing tip to wing tip?
 How large is the body? About the size of a football? Smaller or larger? Shaped how? round/"fat" or little and narrow shaped head?

Be it either big bat or some kind of an owl, both of these animals need no wild woods or big hollow trees to roost within, within an urban/city environment the broken window of someone's neglected attic or an abandoned building will provide access to all the shelter that it would ever need, provided that there was abundant food[mice,rats,rabbits, small housecats, sleeping pigeons, etc.]and some place to drink in the area.
Please tell us more, I am intrigued[smile].

[LupusStormDancer]

There actualy is a species of bat that can get that large althought it is more commonly found in India. And if you could maybe describe exactly what the shreaking sounded like or maybe get a recording of it I can help figure out exactly what kind of bird it is odds are it's a barn owl though.

[ferox1012]

Good evening[smile].
Yes dear lady, the "Flying Foxes", those huge species of fruit bat. I thought of those myself, but he says that he's in California...........not that that makes it an impossibility,....just an improbability. Maybe if one got loose from somewhere....?

[Gaiano]

@ferox- Oh my god and goddess I think you solved the case! There's an abandoned building that's across the street from the mobile home park. It's creepy and run down covered with graffiti and no one's lived there in four years. If it is an owl, it could in there as there are NO trees whatsoever in this mobile home park. Except for ONE palm tree that look's like it's dying.