Research and Investigation into Anomalous Light Phenomena
on and over Lake Ontario, Ontario, Canada



THE NIAGARA ORBS


2011 Submission from Visitor to Orbwatch

I am 32 years old and I have lived in the Niagara Region for most of my life.

At one time I thought that the orbs were something only I had seen, and were an isolated event. 16 years later I have learned differently... They are a common well known occurrence around here. I have been something of a UFO debunker ever since I was a kid, and the orbs have been the ONLY observed phenomena that I could not explain. I have no photo documentation of them, but here are my observations:

I first saw them moving around out over the lake from a townhouse window on Cushman Road when I was about 14-15. There were 3 or 4 or them. At that time they moved around the sky, got brighter, dimmer, and seemed to have no pattern in their movements. They seemed to be around the end of the canal area and gathered together for the most part.

(The Welland Canal - ed.)

That summer or next (can't remember) I was at the beach with a friend near the same area (off of Arthur street), saw a few more orbs and one began moving across the lake towards me. Needless to say we left in a hurry that night.

About two years ago (2009ish) I was in the Fort George parking lot and saw one single orb passing over the trees (I am assuming it was over the lake), which pulsated and faded out as they usually seem to do. This lasted about 30 seconds.

On March 19th 2011 a companion and I were at one of the local secluded beaches here in NOTL to take photos of the super moon that was occurring. I have seen the orbs from there before and was not disappointed that night. I wasn't able to capture them on film, but we saw three of the orbs across the lake on the Hamilton side. All three were bright orange, flared into existence above the lake, moved horizontally to the right towards the Hamilton shore and then faded out.

My companion has sharper eyes and said one of the them looked like two orbs close together, though they all looked like singles to me. I could not judge height or size. Time was between 12 and 1 EST. We returned on the 20th to simply orb watch and saw the same thing, though this time there were 5 sightings similar to the ones the night before. I would note that they seemed to appear closer to Hamilton than Toronto as they usually would.

In between these most memorable sightings I have seen them several other times and they usually appear out of nowhere and then fade out or appear to dive into the lake. They seem to appear mostly in the late summer/early fall, at least the ones I have seen (with the exception of them appearing in the early spring this year). I have noticed that they seem to travel in a completely flat horizontal line, and that they can change direction or stop very quickly.

Every one of these has been orange or dark yellow in appearance. They appear in groups or singly, and I have seen one fade out and another sort of fade in in some other location shortly afterwards. Whether or not this could be the same one rotating away from the observer and then back again I have no idea, though it seems like a possiblity. Quite a few of them exhibit a pulsating type effect, or flashing.

Really, they are a fairly regular occurrence around here and I have yet to come up with an explanation for them. I have discounted ball lightning, weather balloons, fireworks, insects, etc. I suppose that there may be some link to humidity and light reflection from freighters on the lake, or the sun setting, but even that seems like a stretch me.


Thanks to the witness for this very interesting report.