Predator.

It was the Predator

Well done Ninja !!!

My colleagues had though of aliens of some description, but NO ONE came up with Governor "Arnie's" friend !!!

(But then, if it WAS the predator, how come I am still here relating the encounter to you all ??? )

He was waiting for larger fish?

www.cccoutdoors.com do the petzl led for £20

One effect that is seen in some 'haunted house' photos is of 'ghostly floating spheres', especially ones taken by flash cameras.

These are caused by the flash illuminating motes of dust close to the camera. Being so close, they're out of focus, but bright.

Maybe you encountered a similar phenomenon with your bright LED headtorch, and, say, a spider's web or something in your line of sight?

It was definately a pair of eyes, I do know the difference, I see my own dogs often enough and the odd fox and badger too, and it was definately too large to be anything smaller than a large dog size !!

It is amazing how night and day can give different perspectives to a familiar location.

I re-visited the scene today in brilliant sunshine and I think I now know what it was I saw.

As I said previously, it was definitely eyes, and forward facing of a predatory animal.

Well I noticed a tree stump about 1 foot high. This was surrounded by dense woodland to three sides, except from the front, and my approach. If there were indeed an animal, I would be expecting it to run off AWAY from me, thus making a sound as it crashed through the woodland.

I now think that it might well have been an owl (albeit a large one) which had been sitting on the tree stump, thus giving it an appearance of being around 2 feet tall.

There is no way it could have flown off to the left, right or away, but, it could have launched itself silently TOWARD and above me as I momentarily turned my gaze toward the dogs, and left the woods from the direction that we had entered. I would have been concentrating on the ground approach, which would have been the obvious an expected escape route!

It would also explain why the dogs could find no "track," they might well have scented the perching position, but airborne scent is notoriously difficult for dogs to track!

That's it, hobgoblins, aliens, ghosties & ghouls have finely given way to what in my mind id the ONLY way I can explain it!

So as rational as it sounds, I think the Captain has it!!

I thagyou!

Although I didn't go into detail, it was the lack of ground scent trail or sound, and the fact that you did see an owl later that made me suspect that's what it was. I was thinking along the lines of owl low in a tree, maybe with prey, but the tree stump makes a lot more sense.

No, the Predator makes more sense.
;oP