Years ago I used to be really into the paranormal, UFOs and the like. Twice in my lifetime I've seen something that I would describe as a UFO – because I genuinely couldn't identify what it was – but I think the mystery of one of those sightings was revealed today.

The first thing I saw – which is still unexplained today – was a triangular shaped craft, flying silently and very low over Farnborough in Hampshire back in about 1996. Farnborough airfield is home to Qinetic, one of the world's leading aerospace defence organisations, so I've always put it down to being some sort of experimental aircraft.

The other thing was a silver orb that I saw flying erratically over a field on the Ridgeway, the hills between Oxfordshire and Berkshire, a few years ago. It was about 30cm across, reflected the light, looked perfectly spherical and flew up, down and across a small area. I knew there was probably a rational explanation for it but until today I didn't know what it was.

Today we were driving up the M5 from Devon and I spotted a small silver ball to the right of the motorway. Identical in size to the one I saw before, it also flew erratically, hovering briefly before zigzagging up, down across. I watched it for a few minutes and as we moved closer to it, it turned slightly and I realised it was simply a strange trick of the light, because the silver orb was nothing other than ….

A seagull.

Mystery solved!