Several months ago, UFO*BC received a
report of a compelling sighting that had occurred at a lake near Kamloops. In late
October, 2001, UFO*BC directors David Pengilly, Martin Jasek and Gord Heath, drove up to
Kamloops to meet the witness in his mid 20s who had made the report. We met him at a
restaurant at the south end of Kamloops and he guided us up to Jacko Lake, which is a
short drive south of town.
The event occurred in May 2000. He and his friend went up to the lake to do some fishing
after work. He guided us to the spot at the northwest end of the lake where the vehicles
park to launch their boats. The lake is fairly small, probably less than a kilometer
across. He described the events of the evening and I recorded his narrative on video. The
following account is mostly his narration of their experience that night.
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"We started going up this side of the lake then up
the other section just doing a little "L" for most of the day and as it got
later people started leaving, going home till we were the last guys here.
We saw the light was on the truck so we went over and turned it off. The guy who I was
with wanted to do one more turn around the lake so we got back in and when we got around
to that other point, it was starting to get very dark. So we decided to just go along that
bank (pointing to the far shore to the south east of us) and then come home because it
wasn't producing.
There was fish jumping earlier and it was fairly quiet now. The lake was fairly calm but
there was no action. We hadn't had any bites. So we started going along that far end bank
so we got towards the center where those guys are in that red boat there. And we headed
that way. And now it's getting really dark. It's very hard to see the truck and I had a
white truck at the time. So I said you can either gun it around the lake or we can just go
slowly across the center. He said "okay". I was letting him drive and I was in
the front.
So we started coming directly across and I was facing the hill cause I was in the front
and he was facing the truck (across on the opposite side of the lake), and as we got maybe
twenty feet from shore I saw this light up over there where the field is (more or less
behind them) but it was higher up and at first I thought it was a satellite and I said to
him "Have you ever seen one of those satellites before?" and he said
"No" and he started turning around and right away I knew it wasn't a satellite.
It was too low, too big, too everything and I was like, I couldn't understand what it was
at first and I was like "that's not a satellite". And he turned around and he's
looking at me. He's got a puzzled look on his face.
And just as we're looking at it, a smaller light looks like it's come out of those trees.
Tssh.. Tssh.. went up right into the bottom of that light man, no word of a lie. And
that's when everything went bad. That's when everything went nasty. Because he started
flipping out. "Did you see that? Did you see that?" And I was like "Go! Go!
Just gun the motor. Get us outta here. Let's just go back to the truck. Let's not hang
around. This isn't right. This isn't right." So he guns the motor.
"You're pointing that way?" asks Martin, pointing to the far shore.
We're pointing this way to come back, cause he'd just started his turn and I'm looking at
him. I'm screaming at him. "Lets just go!" And he's kind of "Uh. Uh."
Looking over his shoulder looking at it. And then finally I stood up and was like
"Lets go!" and he opened up the motor and he turned around to look straight
across the lake to where he's driving, the way he's facing. He slacks off the motor and
he's like "Look at the birds! Look at the birds!" and the whole center of the
lake is covered in thousands of birds. Ducks, or loons. I don't know. But there must have
been thousands of them. We couldn't drive through them. And I said "Just gun it.
They'll move. They're birds for Christ sakes." So he guns it. "Poof!" Last
thing I remember.
Next thing I remember (he points back
to the willows or dogwood shrubs on the nearby bank by the parking area) is when the
water's deep it comes half way up this loading (ramp) so all these little trees or
whatever they are. They're in the water. The next thing I remember, these branches are in
my face and I'm pushing them away and I look around and I said to him. "You're in the
trees you know. You're ten feet from shore. Just pull back and go around them." So he
backed it up and he gunned it to shore and we jumped out. And we're looking back across
now. "What was that? What was going on?" And its like "Who cares? We're
here. We're okay. Lets just go over and load our shit in the truck and let's go.
Right?" And he's like "Let's leave it. Let's leave it." And I was like
"No. Let's take it" and two minutes later he wanted to take it and I wanted to
leave it, and as we're loading up and I don't know if what we saw is lights over there
(pointing to area above north end of lake) or what, it's hazy. And he said something like
"Stay nearby. Don't let them take me" or something else. "Me too. I don't
want to go anywhere either you know." And he said, "Don't, don't look up cause
they'll know what you're thinking" like he'd seen too many movies. He said
"Don't look up" and right as he said that, where there is no stars, it was just
dark, this yellow light.. turned on… turned off… perfect circle, size of a
pencil eraser in the sky (he shows size of pencil eraser between his thumb and forefinger,
and holds his hand at arm's length), bright yellow, just turned on, turned off. As soon as
that happened he was bending over and I was standing there. He was undoing the motor and I
was standing there. I was facing the lake and he was undoing the motor and as soon as I
saw it, I grabbed his coat and he looked up and he threw himself back against me. And then
it was off already.
Then it was panic. We threw everything in the truck and when everything was loaded up we
stopped and we looked. And we just kinda looked across the lake at these lights and then
the phone rings and then this girl that I'm seeing she says "How come you're not home
yet? Where are you?" I said, "We're at the lake. We'll be home. Weird things are
happening. If I don't make it home, I'm at Jacko Lake." And I hung up.
And I was like "Why is she calling?" and I looked at the clock. It was a quarter
to eleven. So I don't know. It's weird. There was no feathers or anything on the boat. I
don't remember from where we were thirty feet from that side of the lake to when we got
here.
"That's the only time you saw the birds?" asks Dave.
Just when I said "Gun it. They'll move." I don't remember anything until I woke
up and I was over there in the trees.
"When you looked back there was no birds?" Dave asks.
No, but the funny thing was when we were fishing we saw one eagle and maybe one loon.
There was nothing. How can you fill a lake with birds unless you put in an order for every
one in BC?
"So how closely spaced were they?" asks Martin.
They were packed. They were packed. You could step on them back to back if you could walk
on them. It's weird. First thing I remember was like Hitchcock, "The Birds"
because there was so many.
When we loaded up the truck, it was like "Lets have one quick look. Look one more
time." And we looked across there (back to other side of lake) and it looked like
there was one little light. It looked like a star. And it had other stars around it. And
they would move. There would be one, sitting there. Then it would move.. Shoop and stop.
And one looked like it was to come in off the bottom of the star and then it just kinda
did a little semi-circle. It was like they were playing. It was like they were just
screwing around. "Okay, we didn't expect guys to be out on this lake fishing and they
saw us so lets really throw them for a screw." But it was nasty.
I went home that night and I was living alone. I talked to someone on the phone until
about four AM and the sun started coming up.
When you see something like that you think that everything someone has told you your whole
life is bullshit.
I brushed my teeth. I made a beeline for bed. Door closed. Light off. And on the phone
constantly, "I don't care how tired you are. You're not hanging up on me." And
the next day, I have Psoriasis, and its flared right up. It was almost gone and it was
back. It was all nerves.
I told my doctor too and he's like "I don't know if you should tell other people
about it. Stuff like that."
Was he supportive? asks Martin.
Yeah. He says "I can't say what you saw but he says I wish I could have seen it
because most people don't get that chance." And I thought about going to a hypnotist
to remember, just even the birds, how we got across the lake. But I looked up in the
Yellow Pages and it says "Hypnotist/Entertainment". I'm not going to be some
one's puppet. I'm not going to be some one's sideshow.
Was it overcast or was there a moon out? Gord asks.
No. It was a clear night.
Did you see the moon?
I don't remember seeing the moon. You could see lots of stars. I drove back to town. I
probably got there in eight or ten minutes. No word of a lie man. My truck was going 120
the whole way. And when I came into town, you see lights down in the valley and I'd never
driven there at night before, and it was like "Oh. More lights." Then I realized
and it was like "Okay. That's all right." And he just sat there in the seat. And
this guy, he's a pretty brave guy and he's like "We never saw that. We never saw
it." And I was like "We saw it." And he was like "We never saw
nothing. No. It was something else. No. We couldn't have." All the way (back to
Kamloops) And now, I don't talk to this guy anymore.
And you didn't hear any sounds?
No sounds. I don't remember hearing the birds. I'm sure they were loons. I don't remember.
It's like everything went hazy.
And loons are pretty noisy.
Well there's not that many loons around here to fill a lake. Needless to say, I don't fish
after dark anymore."
--- End of Witness narrative ---
I think all of us who met the young man thought that his narration seemed a truthful
account of an exceptionally vivid and emotional event. The missing time that he and his
friend experienced, occurs in many UFO incidents. Often, hypnotic regression is a useful
tool for uncovering memories that indicate the possible events that transpired in the
missing time. Missing time is sometimes later associated with memories of close encounters
with extra-terrestrial beings in their vehicles. We are not aware of any similar event
involving a sudden appearance of a mass of birds, as occurred in this event. But some
close encounters involve other mysterious sightings of a paranormal nature.
He assured us they had not had any beer and were not impaired in any way. While there were
a few parts of his account that produced a few nervous chuckles from us, he told us that
"Its only funny months later. It's still not funny."
I think it is unfortunate that those who experience emotional trauma or bewilderment after
UFO sightings and encounters have difficulty finding professional assistance to help them
deal with their unanswered questions about the events they experience. This is
particularly true in areas away from large cities where these events often occur. Until we
have an environment that accepts the validity of this phenomena for scientific study, and
until our mass media and governments are willing to deal with these issues in a serious
manner, we will continue to have more and more people who feel they must hide their
experiences from the authorities who provide no support or assistance in these manners.
Our society as a whole is cheated by our government's inability to admit that there is
something more behind this phenomena, than hoaxes, delusions and misidentified
conventional phenomena. We cannot expect human civilization to ever be able to venture
beyond our home planet, if we are afraid to admit that other civilizations from other
planets may have technological capabilities that far exceed our own.
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