2006-03-31 - Bolton, Manchester (UK/England) - Other

I saw two lights which appeared to be linked very high up, as I looked at the lights, I saw up to twelve flying together.

On the 31/03/2006 I was visiting Jumbles lakes Bolton with a friend, this was mainly to have a country walk and to do some birdwatching. I have a very good pair of Carzeiss Jena 8x30 binoculars we had a good day seeing many birds.

At about 1-00pm I noticed initially two objects/lights very high in the sky and flying together I looked at the two lights wondering what they could be. I did not see solid objects as such I can only say they were lights I can=t say what distance or how high up they were. They appeared to be very high in the sky. The first two lights did appear to be linked initially. One white to clear the other a pale aqua blue. The aqua blue light went brighter for a few second, then back to a pale light. I only recall that happening once. They were similar to stars.

As I looked I noticed more and more lights, I lost track of the first two. I thought there was about twelve lights. I can=t be precise of the number. My friend and I jointly concluded there were about twelve. There could have been more, it was very cloudy. I could not determine if they were solid objects or not. We were looking at the lights for five minutes. The visibility was good and the weather conditions were reasonable to good. There were white bright clouds and a blue sky and a average wind.

The lights were moving in a North- east direction from South-west. The wind seemed to be in the same direction, they appeared to be travelling slow but not slowly, I couldn=t determine the speed. The lights were various pale colours clear, yellow, pink, silver and aqua blue, they were of similar size. They were definitely flying together but did not appear to be flying in any kind of a formation, As I was looking for more after about five minutes there were four lights flying in a line but this was not a straight line.

All the lights were flying in the same direction but not linked. When my friend and I discussed this he said he thought Athey were connected@. I did not get that impression. We discussed during the sighting the possibility of them being weather balloons. I don=t know what weather balloons look like so I can=t say that they were or were not. Jumbles lakes is close to Manchester Airport. Planes were circling to land all the time we were in the area. These lights appeared to be higher up than the planes but I don=t definitely know that.

I chose to look through binoculars for most of the five minutes although the lights could be seen without binoculars. I couldn=t scan the area very well due to all the clouds. Finally they disappeared behind clouds and we lost sight. During the sighting I could not identify any specific detail with the binoculars neither did I hear any noise they were too far away.

My friend and I discussed the sighting. He could not think what the lights could have been. I am at a loss for an explanation. They were not children=s balloons. Weather balloons ? Twelve?.