CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: Still on the Track: 12/27/13

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...

Friday, December 27, 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 took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.

Rare bittern spotted at Cors Dyfi nature reserve

KARL SHUKER: Elephants With Wings...And Other Strange Things

In this festive season of airborne reindeer, Karl Shuker is on the track of even bigger quarry - flying elephants!

Read on...

LIZ BITAKARAMIRE FEELS VICTIMIZED

I can only assume this is part of some dog-dementia-induced paranoia but Pal has developed a real mistrust of me with his food over the last few months as he's got older and more infirm.

Tonight really took the biscuit, though. I came with a big piece of leftover beef for him, put it in his dish and sat down. Moments later he had it in his mouth and was frantically combing the whole of Mum's living room looking for a place to hide it, and crying each time a spot he investigated turned out to be unsuitable!

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN KEEPS AN EYE ON PRUDENCE

The Gonzo Daily - Friday

www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/about.html

Regular readers will remember that yesterday Prudence the dog who looks like a pygmy hippo superficially injured herself, and spread trails of gore across the house. Yesterday continued to be very peculiar, especially for Prudence. Being a well brought up young lady all she wanted to do was to have a thorough wash and clean herself, but despite being covered in blood, we were afraid that if she did she would re-open the wound and start it bleeding again. So she had to have a massive plastic cone on her collar, which made her look like a fat Elizabethan lady wearing a ruff. She disapproved of this mightily, and not being the most agile of creatures at the best of times, blundered about the house knocking everything over. In the midst of all of this we had a visit (a very welcome visit, may I stress) from the delightfully nutty Kara Wadham, and the whole day became very surreal. What topped it off was that because of the collar on her neck Pru would not have been able to get onto the bed so in order not to cause her more distress than ever we both slept downstairs in the sitting room with her. It was a surprisingly comfortable night until I was woken by a small black cat trying to push her rectum into my right eye. In the midst of all of this madness, I finished the new Frederick Forsyth novel, which I think is his best since Icon in 1995. And finally, lots of love to Lily Wadham who went back into hospital this morning with tonsillitis related tomfoolery....

Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/12/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_4607.html

Today's Track of the Day is by the World Drummers Ensemble
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-gonzo-track-of-day-world-drummers.html

Music Legend Rick Wakeman from "Yes" to Play Israel
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/12/music-legend-rick-wakeman-from-yes-to.html

Alan White and Peter Noone
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/12/alan-white-and-peter-noone.html

Sky Architect review
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/12/sky-architect-review_27.html

German Mick Farren/Andy Colquhoun review
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/12/german-mick-farrenandy-colquhoun-review.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: www.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 54 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?

TODAY'S BIG CAT ROUND UP

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 are publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in.

The worldwide mystery cat phenomenon (or group of phenomena, if we are to be more accurate) is not JUST about cryptozoology. At its most basic level it is about the relationship between our species and various species of larger cat. That is why sometimes you will read stories here which appear to have nothing to do with cryptozoology but have everything to do with human/big cat interaction. As committed Forteans, we believe that until we understand the nature of these interactions, we have no hope of understanding the truth that we are seeking.

US SIGHTINGS: Mountain lion spotted near grocery s...

NEWSLINK: Unraveling the secrets of one of the wor...

NEWSLINK: Mumbaikars & their big cat neighbours sh...

NEWSLINK: Leopard safari at Borivli society as big...

NEWSLINK: 3 cubs spotted in Ranthambore tiger rese...