A pair of notable UFO sightings took place during the last week of July 2025 near Seneca Lake. The first sighting of a color- and shape-changing orb was recorded by a witness in Burdett on Friday the 25th at 10:14pm, while the second sighting prompted a call to the Schuyler County Sheriff’s Department, who apparently followed the object(s) from Watkins Glen towards Reading on Tuesday the 29th around 4:00am.
Burdett Sighting – July 25, 2025 – 10:14pm
The first July sighting was reported by an anonymous witness to Enigma Labs, an app (and website) where UFO witnesses can submit reports and stories, and users can receive real-time alerts.
According to the witness:
Just got home in our driveway. We saw a light moving in the sky. I grabbed my phone to video. I didnt realize till I was reviewing the video it looked like it was rotating changing shape and colors. My wife was also present
In the 23-second video below, the object first appears whitish-blue as it moves steadily across the sky. The object then appears to change shape, becoming larger while appearing to be rotating and changing shape. The light then seems to grow smaller while continuing to change color with shades of blue, purple, and pink, before disappearing behind the rooftop of a nearby house.
Here is the original video posted to Enigma Labs:
Here is the same video zoomed in:
Of course, orbs have been seen in the skies over and around Seneca Lake for the last 70 years, so another sighting in 2025, while rare, certainly isn’t unusual for the region.
Watkins Glen/Reading Sighting – July 29, 2025 – 4:00am
On July 30th, a Facebook user posted the following in a local Facebook group:
Anyone have any info on a possible UFO sighting at 4am on Ellison road outside of Watkins Glen in early morning 7-29-25? Sheriff was dispatched to check it out.
After another person asked for more information, the user provided the following clarification:
I was told by somebody that they heard it on the scanner as deputies were dispatched to check it out. Apparently they followed a light or lights north towards Reading. I was hoping to hear more info. That why I put it out there. I like to hear from whoever called it in a 4am.
Several commenters replied and confirmed they had heard the same report on the scanner, with one person stating that the responding deputy “asked dispatch to repeat the message.” Another user, from Watkins Glen, stated “I’ve (seen) many since December 2024.”
Although there is no other information on this report, and it quite possibly could have a prosaic explanation (drone, meteor), it’s worth noting that this specific area, along the southwest side of Seneca Lake, has seen many UFO reports over the years, particularly during the 1968 UFO flap. One sighting in ’68 took place very close to Ellison Road, site of the July 29th report:
December 12, 1968 – Reading, NY, approx. 5:30 p.m.
A fuel and feed business operator from Dundee was driving a delivery truck south on Van Dyke Road in Reading, heading towards Mud Lake Road, around 5:30 p.m. The man saw something in the distance that he thought at first to be an airplane. He then realized that the object had no red or green wing lights that a plane would have. It was a brilliant, constant, circular light he described as “mammoth.” The strange light, which the witness believed was around 6 by 8 feet, was moving from the west to the east and traveling roughly along the same path as County Line Road. The man watched the object for several minutes as he drove approximately 2 miles when it suddenly vanished. According to the witness,
“As though it became aware it was being watched, it shut off. It didn’t fade or fly away behind clouds. It shut off like someone flipped a switch. But first, it shot down a flat beam of light towards the ground.”
The next day, Barbara Bell, a reporter from the Ithaca Times, interviewed the witness about the Van Dyke Road sighting. After asking around the neighborhood of County Line Road to see if anyone else saw the same object, Bell found a second witness. A fifteen year old boy was driving a tractor in a field nearby when he saw an extremely bright cluster of lights in the sky. He started towards the farm owner’s home to alert them, but the lights “turned off suddenly.” The entire sighting lasted ten seconds. Neither witness knew about the other until Bell investigated and wrote about the incident in the evening paper.
If anyone has any information about these recent sightings, or if you have seen any unusual or explained objects in the skies near Seneca Lake, I’d love to hear from you! Call 607-307-1167 to leave a voicemail, or email podcast@senecalakemysteries.com.