SIGHTING: SARASOTA, FLORIDA (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"I saw a number of large birds that caught my eye while looking ne from my balcony, which faces due north from downtown sarasota. i believe the birds were osprey or vultures, common to the area. it's a windy day and i made note of the birds because they were not flapping but moving very fast with the wind (strong wind blowing south) with wings fixed. then i noticed the object behind and above the birds. i quickly lost interest in the birds and watched the object move due west from roughly the myakka area east of sarasota. the object was notable because it was either bright white or it was bright metallic and really catching the sun. it moved steady and seemingly slow in a line due west, but at the distance (several miles) and size (guessing 40-100 ft long) it must have been moving faster than it appeared. from my vantage point i could see it for a distance of basically 'half the observable sky' horizon to horizon. it moved this distance in approximately 2-3 minutes before it became too small to see. when i lost it, it appeared to be several miles out over the gulf of mexico, due west of long boat key, fl. there was some similarity to satellites i have seen, but this definitely seemed lower and bigger (in appearance) than satellites i have seen. the similarity was the way the sun can glare off satellites in broad daylight, cloudless skies. the most notable thing about the object was the lack of wings. if this object had showed any signs of wings at all i would not be making this report. it just looked like a white fuselage with no wings, nearly identical to descriptions of a tic-tac, but i was not close enough to confirm shape 100%. it's shape may have been a cigar shape, or a very thin football shape. tic-tac description certainly kind of fits though. there is no question this was not a helicopter. i believe is was too low to be a satellite, and i struggled to see wings and saw absolutely no evidence of them. it appeared to me to be between 15,000 and 25,000 ft in altitude but it was very difficult to judge. it was definitely higher than 10,000 feet. nothing about it resembled a drone to me, at least none that i have seen or heard described. i would also not be making this report if i didn't have 2 photos that while at a distance and regrettably not very clear, do (i believe) show enough to make it noteworthy. in particular, the absence of wings is visible in the photos. in both photos attached you can see 4 'objects' toward the bottom of the photo. these were in fact pelicans, which i didn't notice until half way through the total 'run time' of the incident. these pelicans were moving fast with the wind, also not flapping their wings, and heading due south. the concrete edge you can see in one of the images is the bottom of my upstairs neighbors balcony. in one of the photos in the top right you can see one of the original osprey that caught my eye to start with. "