Scratching the surface

Marks like these, made by rabbits (and perhaps also squirrels), can be found in many places among the pine needles on the floor of Rendlesham Forest, along with plenty of branches broken off from higher up the trees. These are a couple of examples I photographed on a visit in the summer of 2010. Below them are pictures of two of the ‘real’ landing marks for comparison, photographed by the airmen the morning after the first UFO sighting on 1980 December 26. The similarity should be apparent.

In his memo, Col Halt described the marks he saw as seven inches across and 1.5 inches deep, which matches the size of the indentations shown here. Each of the marks was identified by a stick placed on its outside. PC Brian Cresswell of Suffolk police, who attended the site and examined the marks in person, reported: ‘There were three marks in the area which did not follow a set pattern. The impressions made by these marks were of no depth and could have been made by an animal.’