Visitors have been flocking to Sutton Coldfield Park since the release of an incredible new image.
The park, a 2,400 acre site, has a long and impressive history going back to the 9th Century. It has strong royal connections with Henry VIII having gifted the land, one of his favourite hunting grounds, to the town in 1528.
Over the years, there have been many strange events in the area, including sightings of the famous . Nothing, however, quite compares to the latest mystery sighting.
The normally tranquil nature reserve, a few miles north of Birmingham has been deluged with tourists following the release of a photo by a local resident.
The picture, taken by Longmoor Pool, certainly appears to show a very large flying creature.
Photographer Dinsdale Murrayfield told us “I was simply taking a snapshot of the pool. I didn’t notice the creature at the time. Later, when I showed my young daughter, she said ‘Look Daddy! There’s a dragon!’ On closer examination, I realised that there was certainly something strange going on. Obviously it’s not actually a dragon, but there is something up there and it’s huge!”
Expert Analysis
We showed the picture to Doctor Damien Swindlehurst, Chair of Palaeontology at Shepshed University. After painstaking research, Swindlehurst revealed his findings:
It’s a pity that the picture wasn’t taken at a higher resolution but I can say with some confidence that it is almost certainly a member of the family.
Pterosaurs were large flying lizards of the Mesozoic era, that could weigh anything up to 550 pounds. I doubt that this one is quite in that league, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it had a wingspan of at least 15 feet.
If I had to stick my neck out, I’d say that it’s most likely a pterodactyl. But I must stress that it could belong to any number of closely related species.
Pterosaurs supposedly disappeared over 66 million years ago. But there are precedents for the rediscovery of creatures assumed to have been long dead. The , for instance, was also believed to have died out at around the same time. When a fisherman caught one in the 1930’s, we realised that they weren’t actually extinct at all, just very, very rare.
It now seems that this could well be the case with the pterodactyl.
We also checked the veracity of the picture with someone in a nearby branch of Jessop’s. He confidently told us that the image was almost certainly genuine as nobody would produce such an obviously ham-fisted fake.
Tourist Boom
The beauty spot is now awash with people hoping to catch a glimpse of the prehistoric predator. And the search is providing a massive boost for the royal town’s barely extant tourist industry.
“It has taken many millions of years but this creature has finally put Royal Sutton Coldfield on the map!” a local publican told us.
Locals have, somewhat predictably, named the creature Terry.
If you have any photos of Terry, please forward them to The Daily Distress. There will be a prize for the best one that we print.
