The eagle is known for its keen eyesight, so perhaps one of them should join the hunt for the Loch Ness monster, scheduled for this weekend. The search this year will include airborne drones with infrared cameras and a hydrophone to pick up acoustic signals at Scotland’s 23-mile-long lake. Also training their attention on the lake will be webcams, sonar, satellite imaging, and, of course, smartphone cameras.
The Loch Ness monster was a local legend until Hugh Gray snapped several photographs on Nov. 12, 1933, during a walk along the lake after church. He reported seeing “an object of considerable dimensions” emerging two or three feet out of the water not far from him. Only one of the photos he took with his bulky Kodak box camera came out during development, and that one is rather difficult to discern. While some see an animal that could be the Loch Ness monster, surrounded by a spray of water, others think it shows a Labrador swimming with a stick in its mouth, or a diving swan.
Still, the Washington Post reports, “his photo helped fuel the frenzy of interest that ultimately spread not only throughout the region but around the world.”
In the 90 years since Gray got his photo of “Nessie”, no one has managed to get a convincing photograph of the famed monster. The iconic photo of the creature, Attributed to a London doctor, shows a long-necked creature with a small head rising from the lake. However, the photo was revealed decades later to be a hoax.
Darren Naish, a zoologist affiliated with the U.K.’s University of Southampton, has studied the sociocultural phenomenon around Nessie sightings, and says the majority of the sightings have been reported by people who do not know what they are seeing. “Many have never seen a swimming deer or otter and are unfamiliar with wave patterns particular to Loch Ness.” He said there are many watercraft on the narrow lake, and there is a lot of seismic activity, which could explain what was seen.
I made my own journey to Loch Ness while studying in London, hoping for my chance to see Nessie. It was a day that alternated between a light rain and sunshine as I hitchhiked around the lake, creating an impressive number of rainbows — some of them double rainbows.
Perhaps there is something about Loch Ness that makes it impossible to get a good photo of anything, let alone an elusive monster. I tried to capture one of the rainbows, but failed miserably — although it did capture the beautiful clouds and sunlight on a distant hill.
If I were to make the trip to Scotland for the mass search for Nessie, I would want to take along one my eagle friends from the Lake Umbagog watershed. They are impressive hunters, sitting perched atop trees and watching the water for the movement of their next meal, then gracefully diving down to snatch it. I could use those eyes to spot what I might miss with my Nikon.
I suspect, though, that, were the eagle to spot Nessie, it would want to hang back, rather than taking on “an object of considerable dimensions”.
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