Description of Event: On Tuesday, June 21, 2005 British bicyclist Mike Booth was out for his regular constitutional at about 6: 30 pm, pedaling along the road through Lockeridge, Wiltshire (UK) toward the tiny rural village of Alton Barnes - for many years a center of crop circle activity. As he passed by the fields known as Boreham Down (which rise up from the road on both the left and right, near the village of Lockeridge) he was startled to observe 3-4 whitish, metallic-looking objects about 200 yards away up in the field off to his left, slowly gliding along through the tops of the young wheat.

Painting by Mike Booth of domed-shaped objects he saw moving through the field at Boreham Down, Wiltshire, UK on 21 June 2005.

Mr. Booth estimated that the objects were approximatly 6 ft. long and 4 ft. wide, with dome-shaped tops sticking up above the seed-heads about 2-3 feet. His impression was that they were not touching the ground, but were only flattening the upper portion of the plants, leaving random trails in the young crop behind them as they moved.

Photo below, taken on June 22, 2005 by Mike Booth, shows one of the tracks left by the objects in the young wheat; in this photo it appears that only the tops of the plants have been bent over, although later on in the season this track, and the others apparently made by the objects, were flat to the ground. Cars at bottom of photo show approximate location of Mr. Booth on the evening of June 21st. [For a more detailed description of Booth's encounter see www.earthfiles.com]

Photo taken on 22 June, by Mike Booth, showing one of the tracks made by the objects, with plants only partially flattened.

As Mr. Booth stopped to watch the strange spectacle he realized that the objects had stopped moving, and had a peculiar sense that they had done so because they were now "aware" of him sitting on his bike at the bottom of the hill. And in spite of the fact that he had a cell phone with a camera with him and did consider taking photographs he -- for reasons he can't explain -- decided not to. As is often noted by people who have witnessed similar bizarre events, Booth later realized his behavior at the time was uncharacteristically "passive," since he simply accepted the idea that he should "leave it alone" and continue on his way. Which is exactly what he did.

On the following day a geometric crop circle was discovered in this same field, but in another section not fully visible from the road where Mr. Booth had stopped his bicycle, and it is not clear if this formation was in the field during his encounter. This more typical "geometric" crop circle, however, was highly unusual in one particular: the entire outer edge was formed by plants that had been cut -- IN FACT SHREDDED -- rather than simply flattened as is usually the case.

Outer edge of geometric formation found at Boreham Down, in which the plants had been shredded, rather than flattened. Photo: Michael Murray

These shredded plants were found piled up in various places throughout the outer edge area, as if placed there deliberately by someone. Subsequent conversation with the farmer is reported to rule out his involvement. The aerial photo shows the cut area around the perimeter section of the formation - the internal pathways and center were all made up of flattened, not cut, plants. It is particularly strange that the 4 elliptical "rosettes" which extend out into the outer edge area were left intact.

Aerial photo of Boreham Down crop formation, reported on 22 June, 2005. Photo: Steve Alexander

One of the internal pathways created by flattened plants, flowing in from one of the cut edges of the formation. Photo: Michael Murray

Tommy Borms' diagram of Boreham Down field showing 4 tracks left by dome-shaped objects (upper left) & geometric crop circle found subsequently nearby.

The following photos show two of the same tracks photographed by Mike Booth on June 22nd, but as they appeared on August 1st. Now the plants in the tracks are flattened to the ground but are laid in an unusual manner--flattened from both sides of the track, in toward the middle, with plants overlapping and pushed up in the center.

One of the tracks left by the domed objects 5+weeks after original encounter. Photo: T. Borms, 1 August, 2005

Another of the tracks left by the domed objects, approx. 5+ weeks after initial event. Photo: T. Borms, 1 August, 2005

When Mr. Borms visited the Boreham Down site on August 1st he examined the plants in both the crop formation and in the tracks left by the domed objects, looking for any visible changes to the plants - evidence that either of these events might have resulted in some of the visible plant changes scientifically documented in association with the genuine crop circle phenomenon (i.e., elongated apical nodes and/or expulsion cavities in the plant stems).

No elongated apical nodes (top node beneath the seed-head) and no expulsion cavities were found in the geometric crop formation, but in the tracks left by the domed objects hundreds of markedly elongated apical nodes and 2nd nodes were seen throughout.

Elongated and bent nodes found in tracks left by domed objects (but not found inside "geometric" crop formation nearby). Photo: T.Borms, 1 August, 2005

Node bending was observed in both the apical (1st node beneath the seed-head) and 2nd nodes, some of which may be the result of phototropism and gravitropism (the natural recovery processes of plants which have been flattened early in their growth-stage), since the tracks occurred in an early growth-stage of the crop more than 5 weeks before these photos were taken. The apical nodes showed both marked elongation & less pronounced bending overall than was observed in the 2nd nodes; therefore, the elongation of the apical nodes is more likely to be an indication of node change which occurred when the tracks were first flattened, rather than being due to node bending caused by photo- and/or gravitropism afterward.

Mike Booth (the bicyclist) also reports observing what he believes were elongated nodes in the tracks left by the domed objects on June 22nd, and he reports that he did take sample plants and controls shortly afterward. We expect to be in Europe in 2006, at which time we will measure the node lengths in the plants collected by Mr. Booth and attempt to determine if there are statistical differences between the samples and controls. We observe that the degree of node lengthening documented in Mr. Borms' photographs of August 1st is greater than that usually found in English crop circles and - if the samples taken by Mr. Booth in June also reveal this node elongation - this would be a strong indication that the presence of the dome-shaped objects resulted in at least one of the plant changes regularly documented in crop circles all over the world.

Elongated apical & 2nd nodes found in plants throughout the tracks made by the domed objects. Photo: T. Borms.

It should be noted that no node elongation or bending was observed in the plants inside the geometric crop formation on August 1st, in spite of the fact that both the tracks and the geometric formation occurred within a day of each other, in the same field and in the same crop.

Regarding the geometric circle at Boreham Down it should be kept in mind that although apical node elongation (which can occur in conjunction with, or independent of, node bending) is the most thoroughly documented scientific parameter indicating the presence of unusual energies impacting crop circle plants, the BLT Research Team's data indicate that node lengthening - particularly in geometric British crop circles - is often subtle (sometimes in the range of perhaps only 30-35%, as compared to the controls) and therefore is not always visually apparent in the field (in the lab several hundred nodes are actually measured and the node-length data on the samples and the control plants is then submitted to statistical analysis). Additionally, other parameters (seedling weight and/or growth habit, the presence of magnetic particles in the soils and/or increased crystallinity of clay minerals in the soils, etc.) are utilized in any final determination of authenticity of a given event.

Therefore, the absence of visibly elongated apical nodes (and the absence of expulsion cavities, which do not occur in all authentic crop circles) in the Boreham Down geometric crop formation is not conclusive proof that it was man-made - it is, however, an indicator that it may have been.

Likewise, the degree of clearly visible node elongation in the plants in the tracks left by the strange domed objects strongly suggests that at least some of the energies we generally associate with genuine crop circle formations were present when these tracks were flattened. What is perhaps most striking is the fact that Mr. Borms observed a distinct difference in the plant stem nodes in the two events, although the plants were all flattened within 24 hrs. of each other.

Could these dome-shaped objects be the source of crop circles generally? If so, why have they not been seen before? Why, in fact, were they seen this time? And why, in this case, did they leave what appear to be totally random tracks instead of circles, or some other geometric pattern? Did they also make the geometric formation found nearby the next day? (Or had they made it already, even though the bicyclist missed it?) And if they did, why were the plants in the tracks and the geometric formation affected differently? Do these objects only make some crop circles, but not others? Or is it possible that these domed objects have nothing at all to do with crop circles, but can cause the same node elongation we see regularly in plants in authentic crop circles? As is so often the case in the continuing study of crop circles, we can only add these new observations and questions to our research.

In August, 2005 a group of Frenchmen who have for several years been photographing strange light phenomena and unknown aerial objects at a well-known UFO "hotspot" near Col de Vence in southern France, visited the field at Boreham Down. Xavier Colin and Pierre Beake, members of this group (website: www.coldevence.com), have obtained many photographs of unseen objects during their visits to Col de Vence; more recently, have they have also been visiting southern England because of their growing interest in crop circles.

Using digital cameras the photos from Col de Vence regularly show lights or objects which were not visible to anyone present, and in the last few years their digital camera images from England also show strange results. Recently they also obtained video footage of the small light balls which are so frequently reported in, and near, crop circle fields.

On August 8, 2005, while visiting the geometric crop formation at Boreham Down, Mr. Beake took a photo in which a silvery, metallic-looking object is evident in the sky nearby--in the direction of Milk Hill and Alton Barnes - locations historically rife with crop circle activity. Neither he nor his wife (the only two people in the formation at the time) saw the object visually. The original photo, with an enlargement in the upper right corner, appears below.

Silvery disc photographed (but not seen visually) over Wiltshire fields on 8 August, 2005. Photo: Pierre Beake.

This is the clearest daytime photograph, so far as we know, of an unknown aerial object in close proximity to currently existing crop circles. Of course it provides no information as to why the object is present, whether it had anything to do with the crop circles or the dome-shaped objects seen 6+ weeks earlier, nor do we know what it actually is. It looks solid and metallic, and is clearly reflecting sunlight; the shadows on the trees match the shadow around the lower rim, indicating an angle of the sun consistent with Mr. Beake's report of the time of day (4:23 pm), thus further suggesting a solid object.

Similar objects have been photographed around the world for many years now, and this whole Boreham Down event - beginning with the dome-shaped objects seen in this field by the British bicyclist leading up to Mr. Beake's photo later in the summer - raises the question of whether UFOs are in some way related to the crop circle phenomenon.

Finally, we include a photograph of another UFO - this one taken August 9, 1956 during a fishing trip at a lake on the island of Marskdr, Sweden (outside Stocklholm). This object shows a remarkable similarity to the domed shape of the objects seen by British bicyclist Mike Booth at Boreham Down in 2005. Swedish artist Kare Karevell described the object he saw as "luminous," stating that he only had time to take one photograph "before the object rose up into the air and dissolved."

Dome-shaped UFO photographed in Sweden in 1956 by Kare Karevell.

[Report, in Swedish: www.ufo.se/fakta/rapporter/bilder/; original source: UFO-Aktuelt (the magazine of UFO Sweden), No. 2 (1993); thanks to the Norwegian Crop Circle Group (see 2005 archieves at http://cropcirclesnorway.com].

Below is a drawing of the shape of the 4 objects seen by Mike Booth at Boreham Down, England in June, 2005; a comparison with the Swedish photo of 1956 shows a distinct similarity in shape.

Drawing by T. Borms of domed object seen by Mike Booth at Boreham Down, England in June 2005.

So are UFOs associated with crop circles? We are not even sure what UFOs are and, more and more, suspect that they could represent differing physical attributes, different origins, different capabilities and possibly different agendas.

This report is written to pass along the most accurate and complete information we've been able to obtain to-date about a particular series of very strange incidents which occurred in the center of England's "crop circle country." Precisely how to interpret these events is not certain - but the phrase "if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck," etc. keeps running through my head.