After taking about 60 sunrise photos and portraits on the north side of the Boynton Inlet Tuesday, a young photographer and a friend stumbled upon an eerie sight, tucked into the sand, as unassuming as the plastic water bottle adjacent to it.

It appeared to be a goat’s head, said Jacob Leach, 20. His friend screamed and dashed away.

"I was, like, pretty shocked," Leach said. "A little bit of, like, chills, you know."

They found the horned creature just after 6:30 a.m. by a pump house. Leach said he is not sure if the head washed up on the beach or came from the shore, was a blip or ritual.

"I think it could’ve been anything," said Leach, who said he still feels the stun and confusion of the moment. It was dark, ready to storm and other beachgoers were absent.

"That was the first time I’ve ever seen anything like that," he said.

Grabbing the Nikon, Panasonic and modern longboard he brought, Leach headed to the east Boynton Beach home of his mother, Janet Leach, to reveal his discovery.

Janet Leach said she was also "in shock" and was unsure if the head was real or why it was there.

What she does know is that she has not seen anything like it.

"I’m just very concerned," said Janet Leach, imagining a child or someone vulnerable might have been scarred by such a sight. "I worry about other people who it might affect worse than me," she said.

David Walesky, Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control operations manager, said this sort of sight is necessarily surprising. He could not speculate why and how the head arrived to the beach, but said there have been similar situations in the past tied to religion.

He said that is "nothing new here."

Walesky said he has seen such customs take various forms and estimated receiving three monthly calls about dead beings possibly linked to age-old religious practice, perhaps Santeria or others.

The actions are done "generally humanely," Walesky said. "They believe that what they’re doing is a good ritual."

But there are "obvious concerns," he added. "Other people have to see it, and kids have to deal with it."

Usually, there is no forensic work, he said, just disposal.

Early that afternoon, about 40 people sunbathed on the Inlet beach, divided from the roasting goat carcass by some pillars. Two teens, Cayla Louderback and Gwen Jack, knew the head was there and found it unsettling.

"I can’t stop looking," Louderback said. "Poor goat."

Donald Christensen, a county dredge operator, said he’s been working there for six years and has not witnessed a sight exactly like the goat head. He’s known of human drownings and a dog’s death, but no other "four-legged creatures like him or her," he said.

Christensen said he does not see urgency in removing the animal. "What can you do?" he wondered, adding the tide could sweep it up and whisk it away within 20 minutes. "It goes back to mother nature," he said.

As far as how exactly the head got there, Christensen said, "no tellin’."

esullivan@pbpost.com

@emsulliv