Falmouth "Shadow Creature" Video [Black Cat?]

[darren_eddy]

Admin Edit: Thread Sammary

The most likely explanation seems to be a cat (or dog) running across the road, combined with very poor video quality and harsher shadows from the headlights. Here's a comparison with a known cat



Link to video location at 427 Blackstrap Road, Falmouth:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.773...4!1sw8fIhyEx6anjWZ2fBzARMg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Hi, I wondered if you'd come across this video before?



https://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/watch-shadow-creature-filmed-in-maine/

In the video, as the car travels down a dark road illuminated by only the headlights of the vehicle and Toto's classic tune Love Isn't Always On Time plays on the radio, a dark oddity that appears to be some kind of creature suddenly and quickly zips from one side of the road to the other and disappears in the darkness. The strange incident lasts only a few seconds, so it's understandable how the driver may have missed the sighting when it unfolded before their very eyes.

Content from External Source

Source: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=312462176704491

Falmouth Shadow
This was filmed in the Falmouth, Maine area a few days ago. The witness was reviewing dashcam footage to see if he had captured video of a deer that had run in front of him earlier. Well, that's no deer...

Content from External Source

It's currently being discussed on the Fortean Times website.

 

[Mick West]

There's two possible explanations that spring to mind:

#1 it's something like a black cat running across the road, and the terrible video quality make it look more like a shadow
#2 it's an odd shadow of something flying at the same speed as the car.

I think #1 is the most likely. It resembles something bounding across the road, and the video is really bad.

 

[Mick West]

Here are two videos of black cats crossing the road, in better lighting conditions and better video. So I think the "creature" video is entirely consistent with a black cat.


(Source)

 

[deirdre]

i see people asking about this bit. how we can see the line through the motion blur.. i know it has to do with how the camera saves resources but i'm not sure i can explain it clearly.

 

[deirdre]

also the size seems really big for a cat... even a Maine Coon (which are bigger than i thought!). so i was wondering if it could be a dog.. but it cant because there is one of those low rock wall/berms on the left that would slow a dog down too much.

anyway, then i remembered headlight shadows...not sure about distances and shadows, but im wondering if half of what we see IS actually the headlight shadow. heres a dog going across the street and his shadow.. maybe similar distance but i dont know dashcam focal lengths. (ps. with God as my witness the first road i clicked on in Falmouth i was about 1/4 mile from the location!
Talk about luck. its 430 blackstrap road. and the town want to fix the road and says it is approx 22 feet across. https://www.pressherald.com/2020/02/17/blackstrap-road-fix-could-cost-falmouth-nearly-7-million/

heres the dog

Source: https://youtu.be/-K-zDK4wrI4?t=3

 

[Mick West]

i see people asking about this bit. how we can see the line through the motion blur.. i know it has to do with how the camera saves resources but i'm not sure i can explain it clearly.

The line motion blurs into itself, as it's aligned with the direction of travel. You can see this in the short white lines, which I think are retroreflector in the road, not lines at all.


This type of thing.


It's an annoying geolocation problem. Falmouth is not huge, and there's some variation in the roads with locale. Here we have a road with double yellow lines and retroreflector in the middle, white lines on the side also with retroreflectors at the side. Neither set of lines is broken. There's a ditch on the right, and sign ahead of the junction.


There's a two-beam wood fence on the right, similar to that at some of the golf-courses. Also there's what look like telegraph poles, seemingly just to the back of ditch. No sidewalks.


The junction itself is curved to the right

 

[deirdre]

It's an annoying geolocation problem.

its 427 (not 430 like i originally said) blackstrap road. 2015 was last grab though so the reflectors not in, just MDOT markings there.


https://www.google.com/maps/@43.773...4!1sw8fIhyEx6anjWZ2fBzARMg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

[Mick West]

its 427 (not 430 like i originally said) blackstrap road. 2015 was last grab though so the reflectors not in, just MDOT markings there.

Gah! I missed that, and I'd been looking at the Falmouth in Massachusetts! Well done.

 

[Mick West]

 

[Tedsson]

Having bred Maine Coons for twenty years and seen them run plenty of times I doubt if it is a domestic cat of any description. Also black MCs are relatively rare.

That video looks like it was full dark and cats are crepuscular hunters.

Its running gait looks much more like a dog.

I have no knowledge of the local wildlife in that area so I will plump for (lucky) dog.

 

[deirdre]

That video looks like it was full dark and cats are crepuscular hunters.

my cat was in heat over that time frame. so the first thing i thought of was a pepe le peu situation but i'm also kinda stuck on dog due to the size...but as i said the landscape doesnt jive with dog.