Sighting in Loire-Authion, July 23, 2017

Shortly before 1 a.m., a camper woke up, left their tent and looked at the clear sky. After seeing a shooting star, they noticed dozens of yellow points of light to the west, around a hundred in all, moving silently toward the east. They woke their companion, who watched six to eight white points of light for 20 to 30 seconds. These followed a straight path and vanished well before reaching the eastern horizon. No sound was heard. The first witness thought of Thai lanterns but was not fully convinced, because all the points kept the same brightness throughout the two to three minutes of their observation. No other witness account was collected. The witnesses placed the sighting in the former name of the commune, which became part of Loire-Authion in 2016.

GEIPAN's analysis concluded that the lights were very probably a flock of birds, most likely black-headed gulls, flying at altitude from their feeding area toward their nesting area. Several points supported this: the lights were all white and about as bright as stars, which fits high-flying birds with white underparts lit by the residual glow of Angers, a few kilometres away; the birds' small size and the distance reduced them to points of light; the large number matches their gregarious behaviour; the movement was straight and at constant speed; the site lies along the Loire, in a nesting area; and these birds return silently to their roost at nightfall. The case was classified B: probably identified.