CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: Still on the Track: 04/09/13

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...

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that whereas the study of out of place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot or lake monsters, it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean zoologist to be interested in. So after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo Corinna has taken the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.

Marwell Wildlife opens new attraction

YER SONG OF THE DAY

TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS ROUNDUP

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 by us in some way, so we should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. In September 2012 Emma Osborne decided that the Mystery Cat Study Group really deserved a blog of its own within the CFZ Blog Network.

NEWSLINK: 'Shopped Pictures of Small House Cats Li...

NEWSLINK: Retiring officer calls off hunt for 'Big...

NEWSLINK: Forest department begins studying leopar...

NEWSLINK: Lion undergoes rare brain surgery at UT

NEWSLINK: Woman bares claws after leopard attack

NEWSLINK: Monarto Zoo's male cheetah euthanased

NEWSLINK: Rescued Florida panther released into wi...

SIGHTINGS UK: Reports of big cat sightings in Leic...

DALE DRINNON: Indiana Bigfoot, Loch Ness, Benny's Blogs

New at the Frontiers of Zoology:

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2013/04/indiana-bigfoot.html

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2013/04/scott-mardis-guest-post-omni-magazine.html

New on Benny's Blog for Thelma Todd:

http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2013/04/jules-white.html

New at Benny's OTHER Blog, the Ominous Octopus Omnibus:

http://bennypdrinnon.blogspot.com/2013/04/flash-gordon-by-alex-raymond-part-vi.html

Best Wishes, Dale D.

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS FREE RANGE TODAY

I feel very sorry for the late Andy Johns. He was a massively important record producer and engineer, and when he died he could have confidently expected a fair modicum of attention from the press. But yesterday only one death seemed to matter; that of an 87 year old woman. Funny old world, eh? Last night we went out on one of our regular wildlife drives around the Huddisford Wood area and saw a red deer and a badger, both fairly close up. Sheri is still with us, and with a bit of luck and a fair wind we should have Vol 1 of 'Mysterious Creatures' by George Eberhart at the proof stage by the end of the week.

Our daily visit to the world of Thom the World Poet
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_9.html

Today's Gonzo Track of the Day is from Pete Sinfield
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/gonzo-track-of-day.html

We remember Andy Johns
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/those-we-have-lost-andy-johns-1952-2013.html

Davey Curtis goes to see Davey Arthur and The Fureys
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/davey-curtis-fureys-davey-arthur.html

The Green Violinist at Rock Society
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/green-violinist-at-rock-society.html

Cris Roversi interview
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/cris-roversi-review_9.html

EXCLUSIVE: Graham Inglis talks to 'Time of the Hawklords' author Michael Butterworth
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/exclusive-michael-butterworth-interview.html

Steve Howe interview
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/04/guitarist-steve-howe-says-yes-to.html

* The Gonzo Daily is a two way process. If you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and want to showcase your work, or even just say hello please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it raining. See you tomorrow...

* The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine (mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also do a weekly newsletter called - imaginatively - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link: http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html

* We should probably mention here, that some of our posts are links to things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest guv!

* Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) is an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and a not very small orange kitten (who isn't) puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish, and sometimes a small Indian frog. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cats?

MORE HAIR ANALYSIS FROM LARS THOMAS

Following on from yesterday's news about Lars Thomas's analysis of the hairs found near South Park, on the outskirts of Woolsery over Easter, we can follow it up with news on the second of the batches of hair samples which Lars took back to Denmark with him. He writes:

"Have just finished (except for one hair) the hairs from Huddisford Wood. 32 hairs altogether - nothing very special-24 dog hairs, 6 badger, 1 rodent of some kind, probably mouse, but to short to be certain of species. That leaves one broken hair, that may be interesting. It is black, broken and rather worn. It's also fairly big. That may be interesting, but that calls for a bit more microscopic power than I have at home right now, so I have to make an appointment at the museum first. Stay tuned!"

SHERI MYLER DAY 3

Sheri Myler, our student who is doing a series of placements with us over the next year or so is back for her second stint. Once again, I am putting her to work and she will be blogging each day about her time here...

This day was much the same as the previous one. Again I did not do the animal rounds and spent much of the day type-setting the Eberhart book. Today it was “K”, “L” and the beginning of “M”. This was the primary task of the day.

A healthy supplement to this was a drive out to the B&B of a family friend of the CFZ, to see their animals. These included a snowy owl, a harris hawk, three pregnant goats, various finches and two barn owls and two hedgehogs which were still asleep and, so, we didn’t really get to see them. We then stopped by one of the smallest and best maintained churches in the area to have a little look at the renovations.

The cat hunt was again fairly thrilling, though not as much so as the night before last. During a good lengthed drive, around some areas we hadn’t been before on the cat hunts, we saw two animals. We got a good view of a deer running away from us and a very good view of a badger which ran away at first, but then turned around to face us, before hopping out of sight, into the hedge.