On April 29, 2012, a man from Dover, Pennsylvania, spotted a massive, bat-winged creature rising from Conewago Creek before it flew toward Pinchot State Park, an apparition strikingly similar to earlier “Conewago Phantom” sightings. His account recalls another dramatic report from 2006 in York County, when a woman described a black bird with a wingspan of 18–20 feet, the size of a small aircraft, perched behind her home.

I received the following email in June 2012. I don't know if this account is related to the Conewago Phantom sightings, but there are similar aspects to the sightings:

"I saw a flying "something" on the evening of April 29th at around 7:50 PM while I was driving north on Harmony Grove Road near the Conewago Creek crossing. I noticed an object fly straight up into the air from behind the trees on the creek bank. It shot up at tree-top height, spread its wings, and then flew east towards Pinchot State Park. It was not a bird—it was simply too large. I estimate it was about 10 feet high and had wings similar to a bat. I didn't see a head or tail, and it was black in color with no feathers. 

I searched online and came across your story regarding the Conewago Phantom sightings. I wasn't aware of those before. I also found a report from 2006 about something like a large bird spotted north of York. I even located some photos on Google Maps of the area where I saw this creature. Do you have any idea what it might have been?"

Thanks, Jim S., Dover, PA

The witness had limited additional information aside from being certain that what he saw was not a bird. He mentioned that it was somewhat overcast, but he felt that the lighting helped him see the creature more clearly.

I found a newspaper article published by the York Daily Recorder in York, PA, on June 19, 2006. It detailed a supposed sighting of a large bird-like creature at Brandywine Crossing in Manchester Township, York County, PA. I wasn’t aware of this sighting before:

Pat Grether is a skeptical person. The 53-year-old mother and grandmother does not believe in ghosts, goblins, monsters, UFOs, aliens, or Bigfoot. As far as she is concerned, Elvis is dead, and the Loch Ness Monster, an infamous legend of her native Scotland, is just a myth.

She is not crazy, nor does she drink or use substances that might cause someone to see a vast, terrifying bird in her backyard—yet that is precisely what happened last Monday morning, according to her.

Her dog, a 6-month-old chow named Bear, was in the backyard of her home on Leaf Street in Brandywine Crossing, Manchester Township. Beyond her fence is a grassy hill inhabited by a group of groundhogs, and she has no neighbors behind her house.

It was around 10 a.m. when she heard Bear yelping and barking vigorously as if a bird large enough to carry him away had landed just beyond the fence.

Concerned about what might have frightened Bear, Grether went outside to investigate. It sounded like something big, scary, and strange had startled him.

As soon as she stepped out the door, she spotted it. At first, she thought it was one of the large kites that kids sometimes fly in the field, but it was not that at all.

It was a bird. 

A huge bird. 

"It looked like a Cadillac," she said.

If that is true, this bird was the avian equivalent of an Escalade.

Describing the bird, she noted its black body, white feather tips on its wings, and what appeared to be a white ring around its neck. It did not resemble any bird she knew; she is familiar with eagles, and it was not an eagle. She is also aware of what vultures look like, and this bird did not fit that description either. "Vultures have that turkey face," she added, "and it didn't have a turkey face."

Most striking was the bird's size.

By her estimate, it had a wingspan of 18 to 20 feet.

For reference, California condors are the largest birds in North America, with wingspans that approach 10 feet, so this was an enormous bird.

The giant bird perched in the field just beyond her fence.

"I was shaking," Grether said. "I was scared to move. It takes a lot to scare me—nothing scares me. But this did."

Bear, being the brave creature he is, crouched behind her. "Bear was scared to death," she said. "And chows aren't scared of anything. They hunt lions."

If there had been a lion behind her house, she would have felt more at ease, or at least less troubled than she was by the sight of a bird of prehistoric proportions (though it did not appear prehistoric, according to Grether).

"If it had been a lion, I would have said, 'A lion, OK,'" she explained. "But this..."

She froze, and after what seemed like a long time, the bird took flight and flew off toward the south, toward York.

Once inside, she called her husband, Glenn, to tell him she wasn’t crazy but had just seen an enormous bird behind their house. Her husband believed her; if she said she saw it, then it was true.

Later, they checked the Internet but couldn’t find any birds that resembled the one she claimed to have seen. She has since charged her video camera and placed it in her kitchen, ready to record in case the bird returns.

"I know it sounds crazy," she said. "But I'm not crazy. I know what I saw."

And it was a giant bird, larger than any species native to the area.

Francis Velazquez, a naturalist at York County's Nixon Park, stated that he had never heard of a bird that large. He suggested it could have been an immature eagle or a vulture, but neither has a wingspan of 18 to 20 feet. A fully grown eagle may reach up to 9 feet, but that is about as large as they get. Velázquez explained that it can be challenging for people unfamiliar with birds to judge their size and wingspan accurately.

"But 18 to 20 feet? I don’t know of anything that big," he remarked. "That's monster-sized."

It wasn't a monster, Grether insisted; it was a bird.

She hopes someone else saw it.

"A bird of that size can't be around without anyone else noticing," she said. "I just want to know if anybody else saw it."

She fears it might become the York County version of the Loch Ness Monster, which she doesn’t believe in anyway."