Alien Abduction Caught on Film

You're flying along innocently enough, and then you hear the siren call of love. You come in to investigate, and -- BAM -- you are caught in an invisible force field. That's how it starts. That's how they get you.

Then the Grays come. They are huge, and they have soft hands, and they pluck you from the force field. You struggle, but they are stronger, and on the mountain, who is there to help you? No one!

   

 

They take you to their space ship, which is bathed in dazzling light. And then -- BAM -- you are head down in The Metal Tube which says "Donald Duck Orange Juice" on the side. Is this some kind of cosmic joke?



Then you are pulled back out into the light again, and they poke you and prod you. They measure your stuff. 

Then the lights are off, and they have you spread-eagle under a weird light, and now you are glowing purple. You have a sense of impeding doom. It is impending doom.

 

Then you are upside down again in the Metal Tube.  You can feel their warm soft tentacles playing with your feet. Suddenly, you realize they have put a metal ring around your foot. You are manacled.  Now you know you will never leave the space ship.  It is over. You are being sold into inter-galactic slavery.

And then you are pulled out again.  The light is blinding.  They are measuring your mouth. You have heard of this; they are checking your teeth prior to the slave auction.  

 

They they flip you over and smooth you out.  They write down your price tag.  What can you do, but look on; helpless in their grasp.

 

And then it is over, and the door of the space ship is opened, and you are outside in the mountain air again. You can feel the wind and smell the forest, but still you are in the warm clutches of the Gray. He hands you over to the ugliest and most useless of his henchmen. You have been sold. This is your new master. 

 

And then, miraculously, you are free. You blink twice. Can it be? But yes, they have let you go, and you are free. High you fly, into the astral oaks, the metal manacle gently ratting on your ankle.  You are free, but always branded.  You are one of the abducted.

 

Want to know more? 

 

This Alien Abduction was done under the auspices of Project Owlnet, which has been trapping and banding migrating Northern Saw-whet Owls in Maryland and Pennsylvania since 1994. 

 

This is sound science at its most granular -- developing the core data sets that tell us more about the natural world and how it is connected to everything else. 

 

Project Owlnet was the brainchild of Dave Brinker, an ecologist with Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and is managed by Brinker; Steve Huy in Maryland (Lambs Knoll Owl Banding Project); and Scott Weidensaul in Pennsylvania.  

 

Steve was kind enough to let me come up, and that's him in the pictures at the nets, and also weighing and gathering data on the owls.   

 

For more on the mechanics of owl netting, see this page on the Project Owlnet web site.  

 

And a very special THANKS to Steve.  Fun past midnight?  Imagine!

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