Iceland After a woeful delay we take another step across the north Atlantic bringing us to the surprisingly green shores of Iceland. A wonderful land of waterfalls, geysers and volcanoes, it was one of the many volcanoes, Eyjafjallajökull, that in 2010 caused massive disruption to air travel all across northern Europe.
Today’s cryptid is closely connected to the geothermal events in Iceland; it’s the hot water loving Hverafuglar, the hot spring bird. This mystery bird is reported to be found swimming in some of the many geothermal pools that can be found around Iceland. These pools of hot water are not just tepid pools some of them really are near boiling and would certainly be warm enough to cook any normal bird daft enough to try landing in it.
The Hverafuglar has been described as a red-coloured duck, as well as a bird similar in appearance to a raven, or alternatively it’s a small tit which is black in colour with just a hint of grey about it.
While there might be variations in the descriptions I have only found the one set of instructions for cooking one of these birds, you need ice cold water to get the cooking under way, once in a pan of ice cold water it only takes an hour and a half to cook. Once suitably cooked it has been noted that the bird is edible but that there is a cold taste to it.
With sightings taking place as recently as the 1940s it is perhaps possible that the bird is still out there awaiting discovery.
If you want to know more about the Hverafuglar it’s well worth getting your hands on the CFZ 2011 Yearbook.
A suggestion which I put forth as my own honest assessment of a small problem (consisting of two printed observations made in the 1960s but reported decades later) but which is going to draw flack from proponants of the usual cryptozoological identification theory:
I should mention that both Tyler and I have the greatest respect for Paleontology and it is for that reason I took the stance as indicated in my blog instead of going with the flow as it were (first link)
CFZ Warwickshire rep Carl Marshall and I were out setting up camera traps the other day. Whilst on some waste ground close to Huddisford woods we came upon a gigantic owl pellet. It was so large that at first we mistook it for a dog turd. The pellet, which seemed to consist mostly of hair, measured fully five inches long. It seems far too big for most owls, with the exception of the huge European eagle owl. I have kept a number of owl species and the only ones that produced pellets anything like this size were eagle owls.
The eagle owl is a rare bird in the UK with only a small amount of breeding pairs. The RSPB are adamant that these are released or escaped individuals, saying that the sea amounts to a barrier that stops them naturally entering the UK. They also state that the species died out in Britain around 9000 years ago!
This all ignores the fact that eagle owls are known to fly hundreds of miles and could easily cross into the UK from mainland Europe. There have been many historic sightings of the bird in the UK. It seems to me that eagle owls are slowly recolonizing the UK naturally. Sure, the population will be boosted by escaped owls but on the whole it seems like a natural process.
The pellet is currently being soaked in a suspention of bicarbonate of soda to break it down in order to see if it contains any bones.
A mechanical 'automaton' of a sea monster with paddle wheel, flipper and moving head from 'Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines by Andrew Ure 1846. An Exposition of their Principles and Practice. Published by Longman, Brown etc., London. Rebound red leather. 1345 pages 23cm x 15cm.
