Research and Investigation into Anomalous Light Phenomena
on and over Lake Ontario, Ontario, Canada
Flares over Salisbury Plain seen from Knap Hill
It's always good to go back "home" each year when possible. I departed for England on 25th June 1997. I almost missed the plane, having set the alarm clock incorrectly. I had stayed rather late at the lake the previous night and had set the alarm clock for p.m. instead of a.m.
My daughter and I arrived at Heathrow that evening, collected her friend, who was flying in from Amsterdam, then drove swiftly to our place of lodging for the night. The night was only 3 hours long, as we then had to drive out west to Glastonbury. The two young ladies were attending the famous, maybe now infamous, 1997 Glastonbury Festival - five days of mud.
I dropped off the festival-goers at the Pilton site then struggled to get out of the winding lanes awash with liquid mud, jam-packed with thousands of people coming in on foot.
I then headed down to the south coast of Devon to spend the next 4 days with some very special friends, the late Roy Dutton and his late wife Marion. They lived on the hillside, way above the town of Torquay and their house afforded views of the surrounding countryside which stretches for miles. From the windows of their house I could see the patchwork of fields, the highway lights, the rooftops of thousands of homes and the beautiful sea.
Roy Dutton was interviewed in his Torquay home some years ago by Richard D. Hall. The online interview is in 6 parts. This video starts at 1m 32s:
All six parts of the interview can be seen on the "SjkUFO Bnstk" Youtube channel here.
As I was driving into the town, the sea was to my left. Suddenly I stopped the car and the view to my left was very similar to the view that I had when I was on the shore of Lake Ontario. I felt that this spot might be a very good location to watch for some activity. I hastened to Roy's house and immediately told him of my feelings regarding that very high spot on the cliffs above the sea. This was Thursday, June 26th, 1997.
The following day I was feeling a bit restless as we spent the day doing quiet and ordinary tasks. On the Saturday I was taken to a meeting of the Devon Crop Circle Group to meet various researchers and other people who were interested in anomalous phenomena.
At the meeting I showed some of my Lake Ontario video which was certainly of interest to the assembly. It was then decided that the group would go out that evening on a skywatch with much debate following as to a good location.
I had mentioned my feelings regarding the clifftop site that I had seen on the Thursday evening. Four people decided to meet up with me at this location at around 8.30 p.m. Roy Dutton developed a method of predicting the best times for possible U.F.O. activity, and we were basing our skywatch/seawatch on this data.
As the evening progressed the visibility deteriorated somewhat, but the little group was not to be discouraged. There was a wheat field behind us on the other side of the road. The gentleman who was with me, Tony, had noticed some pulsating, greenish light over this field so we decided to leave the other group members and go and investigate. Nothing remarkable was discovered though.
We returned to the others who were waiting in the car park and very shortly afterwards two new people arrived. Now there were five of us looking out over the sea. At exactly 10.28 p.m., a large, amber-coloured sphere appeared over the river estuary to our left. It appeared, sat there for about 15 seconds and just winked out. We all, coincidentally, happened to be looking in the same direction at that very moment.
According to Roy's prediction chart this event was right on time.
That was a very pleasant end to a most interesting day. I left Torquay the next day, Sunday to drove back up country to Glastonbury and stay overnight ready to collect my daughter on the Monday morning.
The collection of said daughter was not easy as I had to walk nearly three miles into deep muddy terrain. Eventually I found my festival-goer and took her back to the accommodation in Glastonbury, there to be cleansed of much mud.
We then drove up country to Wiltshire and the heart of Crop Circle country, staying overnight with a friend from Denver who had rented a delightful house close to Alton Barnes. We caught up with the latest crop circle news, had a pleasant evening of chat, then some much needed sleep.
The following day, 1st July - Canada Day - we drove to Avebury. My daughter decided she would like to go to London in order to celebrate the date so 'phoned her uncle who obliged with an invitation to stay with him and his family. Later that day, daughter was installed in London for a short while.
I did some more travelling around Wiltshire, one night recording some distant military flares over Salisbury Plain.
(NOTE:; see image at top of the page)
Above: Westbury White Horse
Those weeks were fairly calm and relaxing. Then on July 11th a new scenario developed. An acquaintance from C.S.E.T.I. arrived in London. My daughter and I went to meet this gentleman and his son at their hotel in Russell Square.
They then came and stayed with us at the house near Windsor. Daughter did her own thing for the most part, not having much interest in anomalous goings-on.
On July 15th I was sitting talking with my mother in her house. She said that a friend of hers had seen a strange object near her house in the countryside nearby. The object had appeared to be cigar-shaped with many lights on it. I was soon out the door to go and get my camera gear. All I needed was the address and I would be off. My mother phoned the lady. I collected my visitor and we were off to the sighting location.
After exchanging some pleasantries with this lady and her son who had been with her on that evening, my associate and I trekked up the hill to where the object had been seen. We set up cameras, groundsheets and binoculars.
We had been watching the area for quite some time when a large, bright light appeared over the trees to the south of our site. I thought that it was a helicopter but there was no sound. This aerial vehicle moved around just above tree-top level remaining there there for about 3 minutes, coming and going. There were different coloured lights on this object and it moved in a rather strange way.
Somewhat later, whilst looking south east over the River Thames, we saw three golden spheres similar to the one that I had seen over the river estuary in Devon. These all had the similar appearance to the nocturnal lights seen over Lake Ontario.
We went out on the Wednesday night and only saw one of these lights at that location. However, as we drove back through the country to the house, a single event, similar to the ones over the river, occurred.
We went out the following night, Thursday, July 17th, and the golden spheres appeared in their droves. It was a very interesting experience. They all appeared in the same location, at around 15 degrees elevation, hovered for a short while then winked out. One thought was that these were military flares but location-wise this did not make sense.
On the Friday night we went out again, but this time two other people accompanied us. We had no sightings that night, but it was an interesting evening of discussion.
In the next while I spent a good deal of time in Crop Circle country, enjoying the artistic formations and photographing them at close range. Visits to the Barge Inn at Honeystreet, were also an interesting part of this visit. At the Barge one could see and meet the well-known names in Croppiedom and hear all the wild and interesting theories that abound in this field.
Hoaxing and hoaxers were rarely mentioned at that time.
Later on in July I drove to the east coast with my daughter to spend a couple of days at Clacton-0n-Sea in Essex, close to the estuary of the River Thames. The weather was very hot and we took a walk along the sea front during the afternoon. Later on, after an evening meal, I felt like going down to the seashore to see if there was any activity.
I left the house at around 8.30 p.m. and drove to the sea-front. I started unpacking my camera and other equipment. I looked out towards the open sea and felt something was not quite right about the location. I looked more south, towards the Thames Estuary, and saw thousands of lights from homes, factories, cars etc. I packed everything back up again and headed to Jaywick, a little town south of Clacton.
I drove along the sea wall and parked the car, then stood facing the direction of the Thames Estuary. There was a golden orb hovering over the river. I saw several that evening, and others out over the sea, but still in the area of the estuary.
A few days later I met up with a friend in Ascot, Berkshire. He and I went up onto Chobham Common, which is just in Surrey. We were fortunate in seeing some strange events of similar type at this location. Flares? Possibly.
Near the end of July, I met up with a C.S.E.T.I. training group near Avebury, Wiltshire. We had a most enjoyable evening at a local hostelry on the Marlborough to Calne road and I took this photo' of the assembled group with Dr. Steven Greer outlining plans for that night.
I also took this photo' of Shari Adamiak, the assistant director of C.S.E.T.I., that evening. Silbury Hill is in the background.
We then relocated to a field behind Silbury Hill for a meditation in the crop formation that had recently formed there. The formation had been named the Koch Snowflake.
The time in England was very interesting. However, I was very glad to be returning to the lake and on August 5th I departed from Heathrow.
As my plane was coming along the St. Lawrence River towards Lake Ontario I did note, a few hundred feet below the plane, a strange pulsing amber light which seemed to be staying in the same spot for a very long time. In fact, this light would sometimes wink out and then reappear. It actually stayed with the 'plane for almost half an hour.
I arrived at Pearson International Airport just on midnight and was down on the South Shore of Lake Ontario 12 hours later.