One summer night in 1994 when I was 15, I was out well past midnight with two of my friends in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. We were roaming around, it must have been at least two or three o'clock in the morning. Obviously involved in some various form of mischief, we were avoiding all well populated and policed areas to avoid getting any more curfew violations.
While passing a wooded area we heard a rising, bloodcurdling shriek that, even as an English major, I have never been able to adequately put into words. It was low at first, then rose to a volume that I cannot imagine any animal I am familiar with even having the vocal capacity to make. I am very familiar with the sometimes frightening call of a screech owl, I can tell you that this was no screech owl. This was a sound that came from something much, much larger.
The three of us first froze in our tracks, almost dumbfounded by this noise. The noise was roughly 50 yards away, in the dense wooded area. We heard the rustling of a tree and saw a vague movement in the darkness. After several seconds of it, without more comment than an "expletive deleted", we all broke into a run that I would never be able to duplicate as long as I live. We did not stop running until we reached my friend's house at least a mile away. After this incident we would never again take the route by that wooded area again at night and were cautious even in daylight.
Ever since that happened I've wondered what possibly could have made the piercing noise, and until viewing your site I had never even considered the possibility of the Jersey Devil. Of course I was familiar with the legend, but I never took it to be believable. It is strange, considering I am extremely open-minded to the possibility of the likes of various "cryptids" and Sasquatch. I had regarded the Jersey Devil as a silly tale fathers told their kids while camping in Wharton to keep them from wandering off.
