2014-11-16 - Gilson, IL - Sphere

Small brown iridescent sphere hovering in front of me while deer hunting.

On 11-16-14 at about 3:30 pm, I was deer hunting in central Illinois. I was facing west on the east side of a wooded draw and the wind was blowing out of the west. I purposely chose this stand to be down wind of deer traveling the draw.

I saw a small object come down about 4 feet in front of me. At first I glanced at it and thought it was a spider or some insect. I stared at this object for a few seconds and realized it was not an insect. This object was a round ball slightly smaller than a marble with a brownish iridescent color, like motor oil.

This ball hovered in front of me at eye level, about 4 feet directly in front of me. It was moving up and down and side to side about 6 inches as if it was trying to stay stable in the breeze blowing in my face, but not getting closer to me.

I instantly grabbed the seat of my deer stand with my left hand, to keep from falling, and reached out with my right hand to grab the ball. The ball dropped to about level with my feet staying about 4 feet out and began hovering again.

I sat down and the ball rose to above eye level about a foot. The ball slowly went up and down in front of me and began hovering at eye level again. I grabbed my seat again and before I could reach, it dropped at a curving angle away from me into the wind. I lost sight of the ball as it blended in with the leafy ground of the draw.

I could not understand what I had just saw and I tried to explain it away in my mind. I relized the wind was blowing towards me and it stayed the same distance away from me the entire time, about 20 seconds.

I am used to seeing spiders, moths etc. while hunting but it was 25 degrees and had been below freezing for several days. You do not see insects in this weather at all.

This ball had no wings, legs or propellers and it was not natural like a piece of leaf or stick. It just looked like a ball of shiny motor oil hovering without gravity.

I did not see this out of the corner of my eye, I looked at it clearly and close the entire time. I was very concerned and still am. This troubles me as I can not think of a logical explanation for this.


((NUFORC Note: We spoke at length via telephone with the witness, and he seemed to us to be quite sincere and sober-minded. He served as a public employee, in a very responsible position, for approximately two decades. PD))