A listener writes “In 2016 i was hunting on property in Ithaca, NY. It was Cornell college lands. They have lands all around the area in NY. To get permission to hunt you pass a back ground check, there is a site reservation system to sign up to hunt the day you want, limited number of people per spot. I’d been hunting this all season during archery. Never saw another hunter in the woods or signed up. I had a big buck on camera, i saw once during archery. So come opening day of gun season i decided i was going to get into my tree stand about 2.5 hours before daylight, I was hunting alone. I don’t usually go in this early.
This morning was cold, crisp, windless, clear skies. The trees had lost all their leaves, and it was crunchy. You could not move silently in this, it was one of those mornings you can hear a deer coming a long way off. I knew the woods would be loud, which is why i went in early. I didn’t want that buck to hear me 30 min before daylight. I make the 200-250 yard hike to my stand. I made a ton of noise hiking in. I got into my climbing stand and got up to height, pull my gun up and get settled in. Im there about 30 min, just listening to the silence. Not a sound anywhere. So calm not even a leaf rustle. I was just smoking a cigarette looking ahead. The moon was out and once my eyes adjusted i could see pretty good by moonlight. About 40-50 yards away a light appears. Just a round ball, softball size or so it looked from my distance. Pops up right in front me. It sits still for a second, then starts to move slowly left to right at the same height off the ground for about 20-30 yards getting a little faster then turns headed directly away from me, takes off like a rocket and then nothing. Just gone.
I know this was not a person. I know this was not a flashlight. A guy with a flashlight the beam is all over. Up, down, left, right, moving with the persons arm as is swings. This did none of that. just appears, moves same height, i remember the glow of light on the trees, then gone like a rocket and that was it. I sat there staring for a long time. My stand was just near the top of a hill, i chose this spot for the fact i could see pretty far for woods in the northeast, 75-100yards easy. I’ll tell you i stared in that direction for another 1.5 hour or more and not a single anything. Not a sound. Not a light, Not a hunter. My stand faced that direction, it was easy to focus on it. Once the woods started waking up i could hear squirrels in the leaves all over. There was no way that light was a person. It is not possible for no sound to be made by a hunting moving that fast.”