Weird wizard hat floating over the marina in North Carolina.

[ChrisMouse]

So what do you guys think this is? My wife was taking pictures at the marina in North Carolina and this was in one of the pictures she did not see it with the naked eye. thanks

 

[Mick West]

It is a seagull.

 

[Ravi]

Nice trolling going on here.

 

[flarkey]

Geolocated to Engelhard, NC. Streetview linky

Gemini confirms that Seagulls have been reported in Englehard before.

I'm not sure what could be attracting them to Englehard. There are no military or nuclear sites nearby.

Engelhard is only a 3h49m drive from where Chris Bledsoe regularly summons orbs on Wrightsville Beach. Maybe that is related?

 

[jarlrmai]

Basically like this but the left wing is down as the bird is banking left
Dark wing tip of the right wing at the top, tail left of image, head right

 

[jarlrmai]

Fun ornithology fact, seagull is a colloquial term for the 54 species of seabirds in the Larinae sub family known as gulls.

 

[Mendel]

So what do you guys think this is? My wife was taking pictures at the marina in North Carolina and this was in one of the pictures she did not see it with the naked eye. thanks

This was a fun one!

Anyway, our general experience is that when this happens:
1) you were there and did not notice anything unusual, and
2) reviewing the pictures at home, something weird catches your eye,
then you're looking at something common (that you understood while you were there) from an unfamiliar angle.

We've seen that with butterflies and hats, for example.
And sometimes you get it on security camera footage, which can then be hard to work out due to the poor quality; spider webs are a favorite.

You have not done this, but some people might speculate about a phenomenon "only visible to the camera", and that would be bunk, as cameras capture the same light that our eyes do. If it's visible to a camera, it's visible, and eyes can see it.

So when we find something on a photo that they should've noticed "with the naked eye" but didn't, chances are they did see it, recognized it, and dismissed it (as did everyone else who was there). It only looks a bit strange on the photo.

Your wife is not the first person this happened to, nor will she be the last.

 

[davo27]

It is a seagull.

Dropping back in here after a while - seeing this was almost too good to be true, but...

View attachment 93600

Basically like this but the left wing is down as the bird is banking left
Dark wing tip of the right wing at the top, tail left of image, head right

View attachment 93599

Please tell me 'seagull' isn't really the default answer that's usually right?!

 

[Mick West]

Please tell me 'seagull' isn't really the default answer that's usually right?!

No, probably <1% of cases are seagulls. It's just a bit amusing when it happens.

 

[jarlrmai]

The common one is when gulls are high up and lit by sun against darker clouds, often this happens in storms or evening/dawn they look like intense white 'orbs' but it's just them being over exposed by the camera and appearing very bright in contrast to the background

 

[Mendel]

Dropping back in here after a while - seeing this was almost too good to be true, but...

Please tell me 'seagull' isn't really the default answer that's usually right?!

I think "balloons" is more common, but "birds" is definitely on the list (see https://www.metabunk.org/threads/classes-of-explanations-for-ufos.15123/post-377097 ); a recent favorite is "birds at night", reduced to white dots.