DALE DRINNON: Palaeolithic extinctions/More abominable maps

New at the Frontiers of Anthropology:
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2012/02/palaeolithic-extinctions-and-taurid.html

New at the Frontiers of Zoology:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2012/02/more-abominable-maps.html

JON'S JOURNAL: Its those waders again

I seem to have become a born-again twitcher in my late middle-age, and I have to admit that I am enjoying it immensely.

As regular readings of my ramblings on this blog will be aware, the other day I posted a story about two species of wader that we saw and photographed/filmed on Northam Burrows, and we have had quite a lot of correspondence about the matter.

First of all, the good news. The smaller of the two birds are definitely dunlin in their winter plumage, as we had guessed, but the larger of the two birds is far more problematical.



Some people, including Peggysmum, Lars Thomas, Richard Pharo and Carl Marshall think it is a whimbrel, but someone with the moniker of 'HertsHobbies' has given a convincing argument for why it is a curlew.

I have to say that it moved completely differently from a curlew, wandering about in an intent and ponderous manner, rather than skittering over the mudflats like it was made out of clockwork. I have to admit that I am inclined towards claiming it as a whimbrel, but HertsHobbies has planted a significant seed of doubt in my mind.

Watch this space.

BIGFOOT IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, AND OHIO

Monster Island News: Bigfoot In So Cal: The Return Of The ...
By Ken Hulsey
According to the source Bigfoot, or something that resembles one, visited the area on several occasions in 2004 and 2005 traveling down a dry river bed across from the community that connects to Lytle Creek an infamous hot spot for ...

Bigfoot spotted in Portage County?
WKYC-TV
He believes it was Bigfoot. Since then, Stover spends his free time in the woods searching for evidence of the hairy beast. He says he has found footprints in Northeast Ohio at West Branch State Park, located in Portage County.

BIG CAT NEWS: The Beast of Smallthorne

We are getting an increasingly high profile in the murky world of Big Cat Research. This has good, as well as bad knock-on effects.

For example, the other day, I had a strange telephone call from someone with a gruff voice claiming "to 'ave seen a bleedin' big cat mate". When I asked him for details he began to get progressively more silly, before bursting out laughing and putting the 'phone down.

Then, yesterday morning I received this photograph in the mail. It was apparently taken on the 18th February, at Ford Green Nature Reserve, Smallthorne, near Stoke in Staffordshire at 4:09PM.

It is claimed that the photo was taken on a mobile 'phone and then cropped. I post it without comment, apart from saying that it appears to be a black leopard. I have asked for the uncropped version so that I can subject it to analysis, and we shall wait and see what happens.


Ford Green Nature Reserve certainly exists.

http://www.fordgreennaturereserve.moonfruit.com/

But is it where this photo was actually taken?

I have asked my wonderful son-in-law Gavin, and my wonderful step-daughter Shosh to go and investigate for me. Their first job is to see if they can find the exact location where the picture was taken...

STOP PRESS: The Mystery is solved...or is it?

BIG CAT NEWS: Gloucestershire and Carlisle redux

The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper column inches than any other cryptozoological subject.

There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived in some way by us, so we should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in.

It takes a long time to do, and is a fairly tedious task, so I am not promising that they will be done each day, but I will do them as regularly as I can. JD

Big cat spotted prowling near North Tesco
The Northern Echo
A mysterious big cat has been spotted roaming wild for the second time in one week. Jeni Banks was driving home when she spotted the large panther-like creature amble across the road in front of her. The incident is just the latest in a string of ...

This first story is just a reprise of yesterday's account by Jeni Banks of Carlisle, and no new news is given apart from a mildly amusing slice of dialogue attributed to a cashier from Tesco. This next story, is also a reprise, this time of the ongoing events in Gloucestershire, but includes some wise words from Frank Tunbridge, who stresses that the animals are essentially harmless. Well done that man!

Experts say Gloucestershire big cat will not attack humans
This is Gloucestershire
FEARS that big cats could be a danger to people have been allayed by a tracker who believes one is living on the edge of Gloucester. After three new big cat sightings in the city last week, there were calls for police to patrol the streets.

WHAT A FANTASTIC PRODUCT: Nessie pins - 2012

24 drawing pins / thumb tacks in the shape of the legendary loch ness monster of Scotland, UK.Secure stuff to your walls with the mythical creature, that's been nicknamed "nessie" since the 1950's.Currently selecting a manufacturing partner, follow @_dshott or subscribe to the newsletter to be notified when they arrive...

HAUNTED SKIES: Today 18.5.63

http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2012/02/today-18563.html

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1890 Stan Laurel was born. Laurel was the creative force behind the early cinematic comedy duo Laurel and Hardy.

And now the news:

Rare bats discovered in Cheshire for first time in...
Yosemite's Alpine Chipmunks Take Genetic Hit from ...
Ancient plants back to life after 30,000 frozen ye...
Indian vulture crisis update –
Rare shark caught off coast of Galway
Deadly crayfish close in on rare pearl mussels
Smallest Irish mammal 'may vanish'

The greatest test of comedy is whether it stands the test of time and Laurel and Hardy defiantly do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBlYDmTzic8

DALE DRINNON: Yowies, Clovis Comet theory, and 'Cedar and Willow'

New on Frontiers of Zoology, a rundown on Yowies:

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2012/02/yowies-robust-aboriginals-and-solo-man.html

And on Frontiers of Anthropology, an article on the Younger Dryas and the Clovis Comet theory:

http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2012/02/younger-dryas-sudden-cooling.html

Simultaneous posting to my Brother Benny's blog on Cedar and Willow, first of two:
http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2012/02/cedar-and-venus-again.html

KARL SHUKER: BRING ME THE HEAD OF OZYMANDIAS!

Had I not become a zoologist, I may well have sought a career in archaeology, as I have always been fascinated with ancient civilisations and the many extraordinary monuments, edifices, and other spectacular creations that once existed in those bygone realms - of which the following example is a particular favourite of mine

Percy Bysshe Shelley’s celebrated poem ‘Ozymandias’ (quoted above in full) is a succinct but extraordinarily powerful evocation of the folly of human vanity, and the stark image of an immense wrecked statue encompassed by an empty wasteland of desert sand as conjured forth by Shelley’s strangely compelling lines has fascinated me ever since I first read them many years ago.

Read on...

KARL SHUKER: QUEST FOR THE KONDLO - ZULULAND'S FORGOTTEN MYSTERY BIRD

One of many little-reported cryptozoological birds in need of an identity is Zululand's mysterious kondlo - a large, black, fowl-like bird that incited a considerable conflict of opinion within the pages of the periodical African Wild Life during the early 1960s, yet which nowadays is all but forgotten.

Read on...