Although I filmed several earlier crop circles the other day when I flew to get the Penrose Triangle formation, the most interesting things I saw were crop marks not caused by the usual circle-making forces.

This alignment of ancient barrows is on West Down, close to the Beckhampton gallops.  Six of them are “ghosts” which have been flattened by ploughing over the centuries, yet their outlines can still be seen as discoloration in the crop.  The other four, to the right, have been preserved by the farmer.  Ghosts like this have fascinated me since I first flew over British farmland. 

Ghosts

 This little crop circle in canola below Goldenball Hill was the first in Wiltshire on May 1st 2005, and it is now very shabby indeed.  But what makes this shot very interesting indeed, are the two tracks of whirlwinds which converge to touch it, and then diverge again.  This is one of those extraordinary crop circle coincidences that “are enough to make you think!” 

Goldenball Hill

 I’m sure that this (pointed out to me by the pilot), is helicopter damage in a field of canola which is also almost completely flattened by wind and rain.  I’ve seen marks like this three or four times over the years, and, since in the early days one theory of crop circles was that they were made by hovering helicopters, I suspect that chopper pilots are trying to see if they can make a circle.  It has a slight “tail” on the 8:00 position, which would be caused by the aircraft as it approached or departed.  The circle was obviously made some time ago, as green grass has sprung up inside it.  It is near what the Ordnance map incorrectly calls Tan Hill.  (Tan hill actually is the much larger, undesignated hill to the left, above Rybury Camp!)

hovering helicopters?

Images Peter Sorensen Copyright 2005