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CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE - October, 2006 -- There have been dozens, maybe hundreds of sightings of the Jersey Devil over many decades. Could some of them be explained by the strange appearance of a large bird?
Again, looking to the web, many Jersey Devil theorists point to the sandhill crane as an explanation for the rash of sightings across the Garden State.
It is a rather large bird, as far as birds go. It stands up to five feet high, its wingspan extends about eight feet, and it has a nasty sqauwk (you can listen to it by viewing my Unleashing the Jersey Devil Documentary). Sandhill cranes have been known to agressively defend themselves, and they enjoy eating crops.
This species of bird is not native to New Jersey. But its ranges is enormous - spanning from the Siberian region of Russia, all the way down to Florida! At times, its migratory path has been known to allow for a pit stop or two, and many times that has been in South Jersey - sometimes, in the Pinelands. See where I'm going here?
I paid a visit to two sandhill cranes at the Cape May County Zoo in October. Janeen Moore, who cares for the birds at the zoo, says she can see how someone in South Jersey could get a little spooked seeing one of these birds in the middle of the night, flapping its wings and sqauwking so devilishly. Certainly, a bird that is not in the place it should be, would be quite agitated.
I placed an old illustration of the Jersey Devil (which you can see in the Documentary, or in my Slideshow) along the bird exhibit's fence. While their are many differences between the two, there are also many similarities. It was quite stunning.
There was a week in January 1909 that had so many Jersey Devil sightings, it was named "Phenomenal Week." There were people reporting the beast in Woodbury, in Burlington, in Gloucester, in Camden, and in Bristol, Pennsylvania. Could the sandhill crane explain those wild seven days?
I propose this theory: a migratory collection of sandhill cranes went off track, and ended up in the South Jersey area. They were confused, tired, and hungry. They began looking for food, and began bothering people, and let out their bone-chilling call. Sometimes, this would happen in the middle of the night. And many of these people, already aware of the legend of the Jersey Devil, allowed their minds to race, and invent things that did not happen, or see things that were not there.
It is just a theory.
If you care to read about several other theories explaining the legend of the Jersey Devil, check out the Devil Hunters web page. They mention the sandhill crane, along with a number of other different hypotheses of what could have produced South Jersey's strangest legend.
What do you think? Do you believe in the Jersey Devil?
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