THE SOAY SEA MONSTER

Two contemporary drawings of the Soay sea monster, the first made by the witness Tex Geddes, the second by someone with a vivid imagination

Archelon ischyros in all its glory dwarfing the bloke next to it

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DALE DRINNON: South American wildmen, Benny's Blogs and a visit to the world of Cedar and Willow

New at Frontiers of Zoology:

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2013/06/curupira-and-other-south-american.html

New at Cedar and Willow:

http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2013/06/thomasina-edison-vs-mob-latest-chapter.html

{Meant to go with Benny's Blogs]

New at Benny's Blogs:

http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2013/06/toby-wing-in-dick-tracy-comics.html

http://bennypdrinnon.blogspot.com/2013/06/toby-wing-in-dick-tracy.html

 

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 took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.


UAE releases 93 endangered falcons into the wild i...

•     Rare avocets delay roadwork closures
•     Black-tailed godwit chicks born at WWT Welney

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN vs THE MINGO MICE

I need to apologise to Max. Every year when he goes to the Glastonbury Festival he telephones me afterwards and tells me all about it. Because last weekend was the Solstice Festival in Wales, I assumed it was also Glastonbury. I have been sulking all week because I hadn't heard from him.

 

Yesterday I looked for YouTube footage of The Rolling Stones at Glastonbury, and not finding any I jumped to the conclusion that the all powerful Rolling Stones organisation had quashed such things, a bit like the Led Zeppelin organisation did after the 02 gig six years ago. I had even got half way through an article about Corporate Big Brother in the music business. I was waxing lyrical on my themes.

 

Then, last night my dear nieflings Dave B-P and Jess H came round. In passing Dave said that he was planning to spend this evening (Saturday) watching The Rolling Stones and Primal Scream on the BBC coverage of Glastonbury Festival. I had got may dates wrong and my proverbial knickers in a twist over nothing. Glastonbury Festival is, of course, this weekend, and I am an idiot. But then again, everyone else knows both of those things anyway. I am now gonna sit and lick my wounds and listen to Marianne Faithfull.

 

What's new on the Gonzo Daily?
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com

 

The Gonzo Track of the Day is from UFO
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/gonzo-track-of-day-ufo-this-kids-with.html

 

Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_29.html

 

Vangelis biovid
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/vangelis-biography.html

 

Exclusive music from Corky Laing
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/corky-laing-college-girls.html

 

Double Dutch: Review of the Dutch Woodstock.....from Holland
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_29.html

 

Liam Davison review
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/06/liam-davison-treasure-of-well-set-jewels.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 two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) 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 cat?

ANDREW MAY: Return of the cryptoturd

Hi Jon,

The two-days-per-week job I'm doing at the moment means I can go for a lunchtime walk round the Winfrith nature reserve, where I saw the mysterious "cryptozoological turd" a few years ago (Animals & Men issue 47 page 72). I saw something similar yesterday, in almost the identical location (photo attached). It was similar in size and had the same regular striations, but this one appeared to be fresher (less dried out). I would say that it's fairly clearly a fox dropping, particularly with the distinctive pinched end. What do you think? The scat was surrounded by downy feathers (a few of which are visible in the photo), which again is suggestive of a fox. So if this one is a fox, then the previous one probably was too.

Another question -- is there a way of distinguishing at a glance between a newt and a baby lizard? Both species are supposed to be common in that area, but usually when you see them it's only for a fraction of a second as they scuttle under cover. Is there anything about time of year, location, colouring, way of moving etc that would allow you to tell from a momentary glimpse whether it's a newt or a small lizard?

Andrew

KARL SHUKER - MY TOP TEN NEW AND REDISCOVERED ANIMALS OF MODERN TIMES

Karl Shuker reveals his ten favourite zoological arrivals and revivals from the modern age.

Read on...

GLEN VAUDREY'S WHOLE WIDE WORLD #30. Scotland

30. Scotland
Scotland is home to one of the most famous of cryptids out there, the world famous Nessie, also known as the Loch Ness Monster. 

However, we are going to stay on land for this mystery animal; we are going to look at one of those out of place big cats. While there have been plenty of sightings made over the years on the Scottish mainland it is perhaps even more surprising to learn that they have also taken place on some of Scotland’s smaller islands with sightings of large black cats being recorded on the isle of Mull as far back as the 1970s and right up to recent times. Mull is an island that at its closest point to the mainland of Scotland is still a 15 minute ferry trip so how a big cat could have made the journey undetected is a mystery. But that’s not the only island to have a big cat sighting for there have been others on islands even more remote from the mainland. In 1999 there was a sighting of a dark brown cat the size of a collie on the very small (8x3 miles) and remote island of Colonsay (over 2 hours on a ferry from the mainland) that must be among the strangest sightings. The creature was spotted by a couple out walking who came within 50 yards of this larger than normal cat; after watching it for twenty seconds until it disappeared over a stone dyke and into the ferns. The couple made enquires locally but nobody could explain the sighting.

Of course the sightings on Mull and Colonsay are just a couple of the reports of strange creatures recorded in The Mystery Animals of the British Isles: The Western Isles.
Starting soon you will be able to tune in and hear about the mystery animals of Scotland on BBC Radio Scotland, the Morton Through Midnight show will play host to Morton's Mystery Creatures, a regular feature where I will be looking at Scotland’s mystery creatures.
Next stop is a trip south of the border to England.

Conserving globally threatened bugs on the UK Overseas Territory of St Helena.

The Spiky yellow woodlouse (Pseudolaureola atlantica) occurs nowhere else. Recent surveys indicate that there are less than 50 individuals left at a single cloud forest location. © Ed Thorpe

Bugs on the brink - Conserving St Helena's invertebrates
June 2013. Wildlife charity, Buglife - The Invertebrate Conservation Trust, has launched a 3-year ‘Bugs on the Brink' project, on the UK Overseas Territory of St Helena. Many of St Helena's unique invertebrates are on the brink of extinction, with some of its most iconic species, such as the Giant earwig, feared lost within living memory. Funded by the Darwin Initiative, the project will help to conserve St Helena's globally threatened invertebrates. This is the first time that anyone has set out to create a long-term plan for conserving St Helena's invertebrates.

400 endemic invertebrates
St Helena is one of the UK's ‘Overseas Territories', lying in the South Atlantic Ocean, mid-way between Africa and South America. It is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world and, for now, can only be reached by boat. The island's flora and fauna evolved in extreme isolation, resulting in more than 400 invertebrate species found nowhere else on Earth. For this reason, St Helena has been called the ‘Galapagos of the South Atlantic'.

Extinctions
Unfortunately, following its discovery by sailors in 1502, St Helena suffered immense environmental destruction, caused by introduced livestock and forest clearance. Today, much of the island's unique wildlife is threatened with extinction. Iconic invertebrates such as the Giant earwig (Labidura herculeana), Giant ground beetle (Aplothorax burchelli) and St Helena darter (a dragonfly - Sympetrum dilatatum) are believed lost within living memory. The remnants of the native flora and fauna are struggling to survive in habitat fragments, which occupy a tiny fraction of their original area. They also face a wide range of pressures from non-native plants and animals.

Read on...

WALLY THE COMEDY RHINOCEROS: Yesterday's News Today

Oll is away, so for todayYesterday's News Today is done by Wally the Comedy Rhinoceros. He is a stand up comedian of some renown. Here is one of his rhino-related jokes.

Knock Knock

Who's there

Wally the Comedy Rhinoceros

Ha Ha that was funny. Sidesplitting. Yes. Ha! Now for the news...

Two-headed turtle hatches at US zoo

Towards a New Relationship with Rattlesnakes - via...

Snake Fungal Disease: The White-Nose Syndrome for ...

NASA satellites reveal fire hotspots that are poll...

Animals being used as tourist props in Mexico

Researchers Discover Species-Recognition System in...

Two Rare Albino Humpback Whales Spotted on Yearly ...

Social Networks Shape Monkey 'Culture' Too

And now for a happy tune that you can whistle while you work: