NUFORC Sighting 17841

Occurred: 2001-03-08 17:30 Local
Reported: 2001-05-29 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 10 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Portland, OR, USA

Shape: Orb


100 or so golden spheres hovering and moving up and down in a corkscrew fashion in bright sun.

On March 8th, 2001, around 5:30 PM, I walked out of my office into the parking lot to look at the ominous cloud formations that had been massing that afternoon. They were kind of unusual, in that they were large, opaque forms that looked like the kind in Maxfield Parrish paintings. Our office is on highway 43, which looks out in a North Easterly direction (Mt. Hood is East of where we are). I looked at the very dark cloud behind the shopping center across the street, and noticed what looked like a huge swarm of birds slowly hovering around in a kind of slow, corkscrew pattern. I watched for 30 seconds or so, and called for a couple of office mates to come see the swarm. Two co-workers came out, and I asked them what they thought we were looking at. We sort of decided that we were looking at 100 or so golden spheres. They moved in the way flocks of birds do in relation to each other (though even more so the way embers from a fire slowly waft skyward.) There appeared to be no visible wings, and they made no particular sound, so only nearby traffic could be heard. The orbs sort of drifted, corkscrew-like, up and down the column-like concentration of orbs that hovered around the "center" of the group. The sun was very bright, and not blocked, and the rays fully hit the spheres, making it hard to discern what they actually were. The sun made the cloud behind the orbs particularly dark and smokey-looking, and one could not see through it. This event lasted about 10 minutes, until all the orbs had drifted into cloud cover, and as cloud cover moved over them. Since we couldn't get a photo, I have tried to re-create what I saw in Photoshop. Though I can't produce the intensity of light coming from the sun (right corner of the picture) nor can I accurately reproduce the cloud formations, this "painting" pretty much re-creates what we saw. The sky was bright blue, and these huge cloud banks were moving rather swiftly across the sky. The dark clouds had that weird greenish-grey tinge that they get when a tornado is coming (or threatening.) Everything was very brightly lit, as on a cloudless summer day. It was hard to tell exactly how many spheres we were looking at, since it was bright, and all the orbs were drifting around each other. I don't know if this was reported in the media, or even if anyone else saw this grouping. I would love to know if someone else so the orbs actually doing something, or know where they went next.



NUFORC Note:

An illustration was included with the report. The cluster of small objects, in our opinion, is reminiscent of a swarm of flying insects. However, how the flight of insects could be mistaken for the flight of a flock of birds is not clear to us. We may include the illustration here, and the reader can make his/her own decision on the matter. No other reports from the Portland for this incident. PD


Posted 2001-08-05

© 2023 National UFO Reporting Center. All rights reserved. Use or reproduction within any application without written consent is prohibited.