By Mel Dyer
Yes! Penn Branch has an urban legend. That of the Big Bird Witch or Hawk-woman, who haunts our wild, emerald hills...
If you're over 35 and grew up in the Southeast D.C. neighborhood, Penn Branch, in the mid-1960s, ..you've probably seen or heard of this creature, at one time in your life. You probably thought you were imagining things ..or that it was just crazy-talk. You may have even heard that it had a woman's head and white, bulging eyes, ..or that it was a witch. While I don't believe that part, I've seen the creature that might have inspired this urban legend, with my own disbelieving eyes, ..perched menacingly on a rooftop, at Carpenter Street and Highwood Drive!
...One neighbor recently told me that this thing, ..which she described as a witch in black feathers, with a chalk-white face and large, staring eyes, ..glided over a backyard family gathering, back in the mid-70s, and scared the hell out of their guests! An electrician, who no longer lives in Penn Branch, but grew up in the neighborhood, recalls walking up to Highwood Drive's highest point - and not far from where I saw that turkey vulture, a few years ago - when Big Bird, as his friends called it, swooped down, low enough to send his teenaged friends running for cover, ..before soaring back into the afternoon sky...
Hawks fly over Penn Branch, all the time, now - winter, spring or fall...doesn't matter - and, while a majestic thing to behold, I have not seen one that I would mistake for a monster. Comparatively speaking, this bird has to be a little bit larger, than a hawk, and the turkey vulture that I saw, firsthand, on Highwood Drive, and have recently heard about from neighbors, more closely fits the description of our quasi-mythical beast...
And the rest is legend.
I'm really, really sorry that I'll probably never see this bird...the poor animal's got to be long dead, by now. If you've ever seen the Big Bird Witch or Hawk-woman ..or know someone, who has,.. please, please, puh-leez share your stories with us, right here on the blog. We'd love to hear from you.
Anyway, i-iiittt's real...sort of. It's also quite sociable, apparently. Have a look at this Post article from 2014.
[Excerpt from 'Urban Legends: The Hawkwoman Of The Penn Branch Hills']
Mel Dyer, without his fine, coyote-hatin' Goldiweiller, Kirby (now moved on to that big, coyote-hatin' hate group in the Sky) continues a somewhat bleaker, dogless existence in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, DC. He has been an active member of the Latino Culture Council of the Capitol Area (El Consejo de Cultura Latina – La Zona del Capitolio), the Kiwanis Club of Capitol Hill and on the Board of Directors of YMCA Capitol View.
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ReplyDeleteWow, I have seen some urban legends in my own neighborhood. Things that make you go hmmmmm.... good story. I hope to hear some more of these stories about the human headed bird.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rev. Lauren. I've had some up close experiences, with our turkey vulture community in Penn Branch, and I can tell you [Hmmpf], ..they're big. Not one of the birds that I met with attacked me - more interested in ther food, than me. I think the Hawkwoman was just a big, scarred-up turkey vulture, with some feathers missing around the neck and chest.
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