ROCKVILLE, Calif. -- Larry Balestra could hardly believe his eyes as he stared across his western Solano County wheat field. What were those strange impressions out there in the waist high grass?

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Solano County Farmer Finds Crop Circles In His Field

With his curiosity piqued, he waded into the field and suddenly found himself standing in the middle of a 140-foot circle of bent grass. And then there was another and another.

His first thought?

"What the heck?" he told the local paper when asked about his initial response. And then he called his wife on his cell phone and told her of his discovery.

Balestra's field had "crop circles' -- designs made in bent grasses by either pranksters or aliens depending upon whom you ask. The designs were most recently the subject of a Hollywood movie -- 'Signs' -- and have been reported around the globe for several hundred years.

To the veteran farmer's thinking, the circles were the product of "some people who have too much time on their hands."

On average more than 200 such designs are reported across the world each year and several thousand reports have been documented since researchers began keeping track, according to data from the Southern Circular Research, which monitors and surveys crop formations in England.

Whatever the cause, the designs are certainly intricate. Click on the link at the left and take a look for yourself.