I interviewed this man in 2009, although his experience resembles a “hearing” more than a “sighting.” (Rancho Santa Margarita is in Orange County, California.)
“One night I was awakened . . . awful screeching and screaming . . . [like] pigs being slaughtered. . . . I opened the window . . . [there was] some thrashing . . . in some hedges or bushes . . . in the backyard of my . . . neighbors [house] . . . I went into the front yard . . . heard a deep, soft, ‘hushing’ sound, like giant wings lifting something heavy into the air . . . around the side of my house . . . I didn’t ’see’ so much as ‘felt’ it. Whatever it was swept up and onto the chimney of the next-door-neighbors [vacant] house . . . a large hulking ‘presence’ sat on that chimney. As I stared hard into the dark, trying to make out a shape or a movement, I realized whatever it was was staring right back at me. I left the yard quickly and went inside.”
I submit this report not as significant evidence for live pterosaurs but as evidence that respected people sometimes encounter unexplained flying creatures, even in Southern California. I verified (phone calls) that this is a successful businessman, with no apparent reason to fabricate this story.