Strange object captured over Malvern Hills, Western England - Reddit

jarlrmai said:
Seems it's another small/far away thing like the Utah drone footage, possibly a blade of grass in the wind, or a dragonfly.
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Yeah. It looks at first like it's motion blurred, but that's the actual shape:

2025-08-07_08-10-27.jpg


I think a wind-blown seed fits best. Or maybe just a bit of dry grass.
 


MinMax echo on stabilized

Malvern Hillls Stabilized MinMax Echo.png
 
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It not swerving in response to dog or rubber non-Frisbee argues for the inanimate choices like grass or feather. I'd think a bug or bird MIGHT veer away. Not conclusive, but supportive.
 



Some reference footage of grass near a camera. It's not that useful for the motion, as the fan's "wind" is highly turbulent and short range. But it shows what grass can look like on camera
 
20 mph gusts will throw light weight trash around and loft it easily...

Expect some swirling around the hill, wind direction will vary even second to second.
 
In that thread, many of the commenters pointed out something I noticed - that the object moves like an arrow at the extreme end of its trajectory, where it has lost much of its forward motion and is more susceptible to lateral movement due to wind. There are several long-range archery clubs nearby, including: https://malvernarchers.com/

While it certainly could be a piece of grass making a very convincing illusion of depth, it seems to be traveling faster than I might expect for grass. Speeding up the video to a "normal" playback speed might help compare the motion. To me the motion just feels like there's more momentum than a piece of grass, but perhaps when you're an archer every UAP looks like a projectile...
 
Ann K said:
If that's a possibility, does that mean the man and dog were in a restricted area? Would there not have been warning signs posted that this area was in an active archery range?
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Upon further investigation, I've geolocated the fellow's position and it's not near any archery clubs. However, it is near a wooded residential area that protrudes into the public park. An incautious or malicious hobby archer firing over the treetops could certainly have caused a similar visual.

The person is standing a little further to the edge of the hill in this location, which I've matched up to the terrain like so:
Annotation 2025-08-07 133530.jpg
 
Here I've done a top down view where the videographer's viewing direction is in red, and the possible trajectory of the arrow is in blue. The arrow, if it is one, likely originated between 100 and 150 meters away, which seems reasonable for an errant shot on a ballistic trajectory.

Edit: open the video in VLC player and set the speed to 10x to restore almost normal motion. It's either VERY close to the camera, or absolutely hauling ass. I'm going to disagree with Mick on motion blur - looking at the "actual speed" playback, the object is ripping and I think could easily be a motion blurred arrow even in slow motion.

However, looking at the original video (not the stabilized one above), there is much more of the object's flight visible, and it appears to move laterally quite a bit before zooming past the camera; maybe a bit more than I would expect of an arrow. I think blade of grass at the perfect angle and trajectory is more likely to occurr, but an errant arrow would be more likely to match the visual.

Annotation 2025-08-07 134116.jpg
 
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GavinLeeds said:
Edit: open the video in VLC player and set the speed to 10x to restore almost normal motion. It's either VERY close to the camera, or absolutely hauling ass. I'm going to disagree with Mick on motion blur - looking at the "actual speed" playback, the object is ripping and I think could easily be a motion blurred arrow even in slow motion.
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Motion blur happens in the direction of motion. So what we are looking at is the actual shape of the object, stretched only very slightly in the direction of the arrows.
2025-08-07_15-41-30.jpg
 
GavinLeeds said:
Upon further investigation, I've geolocated the fellow's position and it's not near any archery clubs. However, it is near a wooded residential area that protrudes into the public park. An incautious or malicious hobby archer firing over the treetops could certainly have caused a similar visual.
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Great geolocation. It does seem to show they are facing due west, directly into the wind.

I do agree it is going fast, but I think a very small bit of grass at 15 mph could give the same impression.

Sitrec is a bit fiddly for very small things like this, I need to improve that.
 
GavinLeeds said:
The person is standing a little further to the edge of the hill in this location, which I've matched up to the terrain like so:
Annotation 2025-08-07 133530.jpg
Click to expand...
So the prevailing wind is coming up that valley towards us? If that is the case, that's going to act like a funnel, gusts will likely be higher there than the "gusting to" number in the forecast.
 
Mick West said:
Motion blur happens in the direction of motion. So what we are looking at is the actual shape of the object, stretched only very slightly in the direction of the arrows.
View attachment 82877
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My apologies, I think I misunderstood your earlier point about the motion blur - I agree the object itself is long and thin.

All told, as much as an errant arrow fits my gut reaction, I think ultimately an incredible coincidence involving a particularly aerodynamic blade of grass is the most likely here, especially as I would expect a flying object the size of an English longbow arrow to make the videographer flinch.

Also, I was just using Google earth and maps, completely forgot about your custom Sitrec program despite having watched loads of your work! Will use that next time for sure, Google was clunky af
 
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GavinLeeds said:
All told, as much as an errant arrow fits my gut reaction, I think ultimately an incredible coincidence involving a particularly aerodynamic blade of grass is the most likely here, especially as I would expect a flying object the size of an English longbow arrow to make the videographer flinch.
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The uniformity, rigidity and aerodynamic motion make blade of grass possible- but hard to rationalise.
Given the number of people who have been up a hill on a windy day (ever) - you would expect to hear of the occasional blinding or at least some colloquial term for natural detritus which gets blown through the air like an arrow ("eye blaster" anyone?).

My guess (if not CGI) is a bug that suffered some crappy image processing algorithm that made it appear elongated and wingless.
Black tailed skimmer with a tail wind?
 
There are many types of dead/dried plant matter that is less flexible than the typical 'blade of grass' one imagines, sedges, rushes, etc

Something once suspended in an airmass tends to be a part of the movement and less prone to deformation that when it has a fixed point on the ground, contrast the behaviour of an an aloft balloon to that of one that is tethered.
 
jarlrmai said:
There are many types of dead/dried plant matter that is less flexible than the typical 'blade of grass' one imagines, sedges, rushes, etc
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A very small piece of dry grass moving in near-laminar flow for a fraction of a second isn't going to bend. In my quick and imperfect experiment, the grass was dry, and the short pieces don't change shape.
Mick West said:
View attachment 82870


Some reference footage of grass near a camera. It's not that useful for the motion, as the fan's "wind" is highly turbulent and short range. But it shows what grass can look like on camera
Click to expand...
 
owntheissue said:
Grass being irregular, flexible and (typically) not moving like that in a fluid.
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England has had a very dry spring and summer and a lot of dried grass is more like straw in its stiffness. The grass in the video looks fairly parched, and there are plenty of other plants on the hillside that could have stiff stems or leaves.

The dark colour of the trailing edge is interesting - it seems quite consistent so likely a real property of the object rather than just lighting. Could be flights on an arrow, as suggested, or the root end of a piece of grass?
 
I little bit of info from the reddit post that I haven't seen shared here yet (if it was, sorry that I missed it). It's in the first pinned comment, by a Moderator:
External Quote:

The following submission statement was provided by u/paranormalnapolska:

Andrew Clifton was walking his dog the day before yesterday (August 5, 2025) in the Malvern Hills – a range of hills in western England. He was filming short clips with his phone while throwing a popular frisbee toy for his pet. When he got back home and began editing the footage to share on his Facebook profile, he noticed something unusual in one of the recordings.

He had been using the slow-motion mode on his iPhone.(...)
I think it's relevant because it tells us that he didn't notice it at the time. It makes it less likely to be a big object like an arrow.
 
Mick West said:
View attachment 82861

MinMax echo on stabilized

View attachment 82862
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Does this echo tool use every frame? As in, does it show every position the object was in?
If so, I'm counting 30-ish (the very smallest ones are hard to see) "echoes" of the object.
If it was visible for ~30 frames, assuming 30 frames per second and a 10x slow motion, the object remains in sight (and moves a distance that can be calculated relative to its length using a little bit of algebra) in ~10 milliseconds. ~1/10 of a second.
 
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Trailblazer said:
The dark colour of the trailing edge is interesting - it seems quite consistent so likely a real property of the object rather than just lighting. Could be flights on an arrow, as suggested, or the root end of a piece of grass?
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Or just the brown tip of a yellowish, dry leaf blade.
 
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Gaspa said:
Does this echo tool use every frame? As in, does it show every position the object was in?
If so, I'm counting 30-ish (the very smallest ones are hard to see) "echoes" of the object.
If it was visible for ~30 frames, assuming 30 frames per second and a 10x slow motion, the object remains in sight (and moves a distance that can be calculated relative to its length using a little bit of algebra) in ~10 milliseconds.
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It uses every frame.

30 frames of 30 frames a second at normal speed would be 1 second, so 10x slow would be 100 ms, not 10.

iPhone slowmo is 4x (120fps) or 8x (240fps). [Edit] Looks like 8x
 
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Mick West said:
It uses every frame.

30 frames of 30 frames a second at normal speed would be 1 second, so 10x slow would be 100 ms, not 10.

iPhone slowmo is 4x (120fps) or 8x (240fps). We can probably determine which by examining the transition
Click to expand...
Right. My bad. I thought one tenth of a second and went for 10ms for some reason. Thanks for correcting me.
 
Gaspa said:
I little bit of info from the reddit post that I haven't seen shared here yet (if it was, sorry that I missed it). It's in the first pinned comment, by a Moderator:
External Quote:

The following submission statement was provided by u/paranormalnapolska:

Andrew Clifton was walking his dog the day before yesterday (August 5, 2025) in the Malvern Hills – a range of hills in western England. He was filming short clips with his phone while throwing a popular frisbee toy for his pet. When he got back home and began editing the footage to share on his Facebook profile, he noticed something unusual in one of the recordings.

He had been using the slow-motion mode on his iPhone.(...)
I think it's relevant because it tells us that he didn't notice it at the time. It makes it less likely to be a big object like an arrow.
Click to expand...

The "I didn't notice it at the time" crops up regularly, and as you say it means it is something too close to you for your eye to focus on. The person was focused on the dog and the frisbee thing, whatever this was was too close for them to even register.
 
GavinLeeds said:
There are several long-range archery clubs nearby, including: https://malvernarchers.com/
Click to expand...
Ann K said:
If that's a possibility, does that mean the man and dog were in a restricted area? Would there not have been warning signs posted that this area was in an active archery range?
Click to expand...

I've done a bit of archery in the dim-and-distant, most archery clubs shoot at targets a few tens of metres away in a farmer's field, sports field or some other piece of open land where the owner has given their permission. There's usually a very clear view around and beyond the targets. Arrows that miss don't usually fly too far.

My brother-in-law does clout archery, where archers shoot at a flag up to approx. 200 yards/ 185 metres away; landing within 12" / 3.5m scores points. (He's proud of his longbow, but will happily regale you with his knowledge of Tudor archers who practiced with bows of such high poundage they developed skeletal abnormalities, discovered when the remains of Henry VIII's warship Mary Rose- including bowmen and their weapons- were retrieved in 1982).
Obviously this requires a greater consideration of safety, and clout shoots are normally well-planned events on private property.

Hunting anything with bows is illegal in the UK, I guess the authorities finally decided to get even with Robin Hood. Field archery, where the archer proceeds through e.g. woodland to engage different targets is a sort of substitute but not as popular as traditional target archery. Like clout archery, normally conducted in an area where access can be controlled and with the landowner's permission.

Arrows can flex a little, but the object in the footage looks too curved (and appears to lack flights, normally brightly-coloured to aid retrieval).

(Just to get some kudos from the bro-in-law: Arrows are loosed or released, maybe shot, never "fired"- no fire is involved. Since the invention of firearms we've become used to using "fired" as a description of anything propelled at speed towards a target, but archers disdain this ;)).
 
Yeah, there's just no convincing argument for it being an arrow. It has no rotation, or flex, or wobble which you'd expect to see in slow motion if it were travelling tens of meters. It's flying in a curving path. But also who shoots potentially lethal arrows toward a popular walking route? It's also unlikely (if not impossible) to be an errant arrow from a club nearby, because the club isn't within any kind of range of the camera.
For example these guys are testing the range of long bow arrows, (@John J. Note the awkward posture of the archer as he releases them) they don't even cover 300m from the top of a tower!).

Source: https://youtu.be/av8WTx_Gl8g?si=AIxO1owegRJXpKTQ

It looks like a very small thing near the camera rather than a large thing, like a paraglider...(which are seen at that location).

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/taggi/54603433546/in/photostream/
 
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Giddierone said:
(@John J. Note the awkward posture of the archer as he releases them) they don't even cover 300m from the top of a tower!).
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Yes, thank you, I enjoyed watching that. Good to see the host admitting the evidence disproved his theory that an arrow shot from a high point wouldn't travel farther than an arrow shot from an archer at ground level...

Going O/T, but agree about the archer's posture, drawing a 160 lbs bow looks pretty punishing. The Mary Rose Trust website has some details about an archer whose remains were recovered from that ship (which sank in 1545),
External Quote:
In his early 20s at 1.79m (5ft 10in), he was taller than most. He was well built, with particularly strong legs. The centre of his spine was twisted, a feature commonly found in archers. Grooves on his right finger bones may be the result of repeatedly drawing a longbow.
Interestingly dental analysis shows he may have grown up in north Africa; he had an ornate leather wristguard embossed with the emblems of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon which might indicate special status. (Not sure if a twisted spine is a common find in contemporary archers).

External Quote:

Alexzandra Hildred, curator of ordnance at the Mary Rose Trust said that in the Tudor age, it was a requirement by law for every man and boy to practice archery regularly from an early age.
"Many of the skeletons recovered show evidence of repetitive stress injuries of the shoulder and lower spine," she said.
"Mary Rose skeletons studied by Swansea sports scientists", BBC News, Wales, 16 March 2012.

The scapula has a section, the acromion, which in most people fuses to the main part of the scapula during teenage years. Failure to fuse or completely fuse is known as os acromiale.
External Quote:
This feature was common in skeletons recovered from the Mary Rose shipwreck: it is thought that in those men, much archery practice from childhood on with the mediaeval war bow (which needs a pull three times as strong as the modern standard Olympic bow) pulled at the acromion so much that it prevented bony fusion of the acromion with the scapula.
Wikipedia, Acromion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acromion#Os_acromiale
 
I agree its probably a piece of dry grass, since we are surrounded by similar looking dry grass and its windy. But I guess its still technically a UFO as its not 100% "identified".
Funny though that its described in the reddit thread as a UAP. Its just not. Nothing about it is "anomalous", since the most likely explanation is just some dry grass in the wind. i.e. sure, its unidentified. But no, I don't think any sensible analysis can conclude its demonstrating anything anomalous/unexplainable
 
Trailblazer said:
England has had a very dry spring and summer and a lot of dried grass is more like straw in its stiffness. The grass in the video looks fairly parched, and there are plenty of other plants on the hillside that could have stiff stems or leaves.

The dark colour of the trailing edge is interesting - it seems quite consistent so likely a real property of the object rather than just lighting. Could be flights on an arrow, as suggested, or the root end of a piece of grass?
Click to expand...
Random bit of (straight) natural detritus seems like a reasonable guess (if not a bug).
Angle seems all wrong for an arrow/man made projectile.

Did consider laminar flow but we can see the terrain (uphill, uneven surface) is more likely to create eddies than an environment where grass travels like an arrow.

As an e-MTB'er- I get hit in the face by stuff on every single ride and it's ALWAYS bugs.
They even make bug shield facemasks for cyclists its so common.

ETA: if this is taken on a modern smartphone might we be looking at something that is simply a result of software post processing?
 
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