WELCOME TO THE CFZ BLOG NETWORK: COME AND JOIN THE FUN

Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

Search This Blog

WATCH OUR WEEKLY WEBtv SHOW

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON
Click on this logo to find out more about helping CFZtv and getting some smashing rewards...

SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER



Unlike some of our competitors we are not going to try and blackmail you into donating by saying that we won't continue if you don't. That would just be vulgar, but our lives, and those of the animals which we look after, would be a damn sight easier if we receive more donations to our fighting fund. Donate via Paypal today...




Wednesday, March 28, 2012

WATCHER OF THE SKIES: black grouse, woodcock, tawny owl


As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time
Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men
and a regular segmenton On The Track... about
out-of-place birds, rare vagrants, and basically all
things feathery and Fortean.

Because we live in strange times, there are more and
more bird stories that come her way, so she has now moved
onto the main CFZ bloggo with a new column with
the same name as her aforementioned ones...


Leks have a look at black grouse numbers rise inWales
Welsh black grouse (Tetrao tetrix) numbers are on therise. However, this increase is only tobe found on those areas managed by the RSBP. The black grouse is one of the UK’s most endangered birds, once a commonsight on grass and moorland all over the country. Their numbers fell dramatically, there being25,000 breeding pairs in 1970 and just 5,000 by 2005, presumably due to theencroachment of housing into the countryside and more intensive farmingmethods. But in Wales the bird’spopulation may have trebled over the last 15 years.
Picture: RSPB


RSPB Cymru's head of biodiversity Stephen Bladwell said: "Thebreeding season is between mid-March and mid-May.
"During those times the male birds put on elaborate courting ritualscalled leks, where they puff out their throats and tails, make distinctivecalls and dance to attract females."
"That obviously makes them much easier to count. Whilst the hensusually remain camouflaged, we can count the cocks, and estimate the overallpopulation from that."
"We've been successful in working with farmers and other agenciesto help create the sort of environments where they thrive - moorland wildernessareas with supplies of their favourite foods, fresh heather shoots and varioussmall berries."
"We've also had a couple of dry Junes, which is essential inhelping to reduce chick mortality and introduce new blood into the followingyear's breeding pool."
But he warned that the black grouse is still far from safe.
In Scotland the black grouse population has also rallied, with someexperts now calling for Welsh and Scottish birds to be cross-bred in order tobroaden the gene pool and prevent localised diseases and conditions

‘Satnav’ system to track the dwindling woodcockpopulations
The woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) isScotland’s most secretive bird and its numbers fell by around 86% between 1970and 2007. The wader migrates to northern Europe and Russia to breed each yearand this year The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust is going to usesatellite technology to follow 12 woodcocks on their migration.
However, it doeshave to be noted that the woodcock can be hunted in Scotland, apart from Sundaysand Christmas Day that is. The samerules apply for England and Wales too apparently.
“Perhaps the most immediate result of thisproject would be a dialogue in Europe about bag limits and sustainability inshooting,” said Dr Andrew Hoodless of the Game & Wildlife ConservationTrust. “We’re not advocating voluntary bans or some sort of restriction onhunting at this stage but it’s something we may look at in the future.”
There is currentlyno limit on the number of woodcocks that can be hunted in the UK, although somelimits exist in other European countries including France, Italy and Portugal.Between three and four million woodcocks are hunted each year across Europe.
Photo: Wikipedia


Woodcocks aresecretive birds that are rarely spotted in the wild. Hoodless said: “I amconvinced that by following our 12 satellite tagged birds we will soon havesome revealing insights into the migration strategies of woodcocks acrossEurope.
“This informationis essential for sound conservation management of the species as well as beingof fascination to us all.”
He added that theproject is hoping to expand the number of birds it monitors over the next year.
“We are looking totag a further 20 woodcocks over the next two winters to ensure a scientificallyvalid analysis,” Hoodless said. “Woodcocks generally live for three to fouryears so we’re hoping that with some of the birds we will be able to followthem for several seasons and watch their repeated migratory patterns.”
To follow the birdson their journeys log on to www.woodcockwatch.com

Tawnyowls
According to the South Nottinghamshire Ringing Groupblogspot, a tawny owl was found sitting on four eggs on 10th January this year in thecounty! And it is very unusual to find these birds breeding that early in theyear. You can read more about thisdiscovery at: http://southnottsringinggroup.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/very-early-tawny-owl.html



No comments: