By Tim Binnall
A birdwatcher visiting a loch in Scotland snapped a pair of photographs which feature a mysterious creature that briefly emerged from the water. According to a local media report, the intriguing sighting came to light last week, though it occurred earlier this past summer as Jamie Houghton was walking along the shore of the country's fairly sizeable Loch Long, which measures a whopping 20 miles in length. Whatever serenity the site may have afforded was shattered when the birder heard a disturbance out on the water. When he looked in the direction of the noise, he saw a strange creature briefly emerge and then vanish beneath the surface.
"When it first came up I'd say it was much longer and slender than any seal I've seen," he recalled, "I'm convinced it wasn't a seal as it just seemed too slender and too long." Houghton's hobby turned out to be rather fortuitous as that meant he was primed to photograph the creature if it popped out of the water again, which it did just a few moments later. In this instance, which he said lasted "no more than a minute in total," the aquatic anomaly surfaced slightly less than before, but the birder was able to pull off two quality photographs of the oddity (seen above and below). Hoping to catch sight of the creature once more, Houghton "hung around for an hour or so," but never saw the 'beast' again.
The birder eventually shared the images on a Facebook group devoted to scenic Scottish photographs and joked that the creature was "just Nessie on her holidays." As for what the creature could have been, suggestions have included a turtle, a giant fish, or perhaps a porpoise. For his part, Houghton says he has no idea what the animal could have been, though stressed that "whatever it was, I want it noted that I hadn’t been on the whisky that day either." What do you think the birder photographed emerging from Loch Long? Share your best guess with us at the Coast to Coast AM Facebook page.