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...

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Friday, April 03, 2015

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: BIRD BEHAVIOUR IN BRITAIN DURING WORLD WAR 1

Hello

I found this snippet in the Trenton Evening Times (New Jersey) of April 11th 1915:


“ Not even bird students knew how sensitive were the ears of birds until this war began,and new facts are coming out,day by day,showing that birds hear noises or feel vibrations that human beings fail to catch. During the German airship raid on the English coast [this may refer to the Zeppelin raids on Great Yarmouth and King`s Lynn in January 1915-R] pheasants and other birds,many miles inland,awoke in the night,during the attack,and chattered in terror. Bird students believed that the birds were hearing distant explosions. But, within the past two weeks,the bird lovers have changed their minds and they now believe that it is the whirr of the air propellers that causes the annoyance. On the English coast from points where the English aeroplanes start on their cross channel raids the family parrots raise terrific disturbance while the aeroplanes are in the air. Long before an aeroplane can be seen or before a human can hear the whirr of the air engines, the parrots are trying out their discomfort. (1)


1. Trenton Evening Times April 11th 1915

BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



Ozarks Bigfoot Sighting
“I have read about the foul odor mentioned more than once by Bigfoot witnesses, but we had the window down and there was very little breeze at the 

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

What has Corinna's column of Fortean bird news got to do with cryptozoology?

Well, everything, actually!

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.



THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN COULD SLEEP FOR A THOUSAND YEARS

The Gonzo Daily - Friday/Saturday
 
A strange day of mixed emotions. I am feeling considerably better, and whilst not quite back to whatever passes as normal, I am better than I have been for the last month. However I have a mountainous backlog of things to deal with, which is why the CFZ Monthly newsletter for subscribers has not happened yet. But it will. On the other hand I heard this morning that someone dear to me has taken an overdose, and whilst out of danger, it was a damned close run thing. Our thoughts and prayers are with you my dear.
 
 
The Gonzo Weekly #123
www.gonzoweekly.com
 
Cream, Kansas, Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Viv Albertine, The Slits, Daevid Allen, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, and Yes fans had better look out!
 
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#123) is another bumper one at 92 pages and is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Cream on the cover, and inside yours truly pontificates on the band's legacy while Tony Palmer remembers filming their farewell show back in 1968. Doug writes about proggers Kansas, and Jon critiques the new autobiography by Viv Albertine of The Slits. We look at just a few of the many tributes to Daevid Allen, and send the Gonzo Customer Service guy to a Desert Island. Neil Nixon reports on an even stranger album than usual, Wyrd goes avant garde, Xtul gets even more peculiar,  and there are radio shows from Strange Fruit and from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and the titular submarine dwellers are still lost at sea, although I have been assured that they will hit land again soon. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons trying to choose (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials having difficulty in making choices, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!
 
This issue features:
 
Cream, Ringo Starr, SXSW, Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Blur, Daevid Allen, James Murphy, Galahad, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, John Renbourn, Anthony Pero, Michael Porcaro, Bruce Crump, Jackie Trent, Tommy James, Mick Abrahams, Firemerchants, Dee Palmer, Atkins May Project, Wagner, Hawkwind, Karnataka, Paul Buff, Frank Zappa, Charli XCX, Garth Brooks,5 Seconds of Summer, Ed Sheeran, Tony Palmer, Kansas, Steve Lavelle, HaWkwind, Yes, Viv Albertine, Xtul, Fairport Convention, Belle and Sebastian,Neil Nixon, Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias, Beatles,Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, 1D, Elvis, Micky Dolenz, Tom Jones,  Golden Resurrection, Indicco, Myrath
 

Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
 
All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer. If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is power chaps, we have to share it!
 
You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:
http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/
 

* 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/…/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit
 
* 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 55 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa 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 infantile orange cat?

NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Friday/Saturday

ON THIS DAY IN 1933 - First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt informed newspaper reporters that beer would be served at the White House. This followed the March 22 legislation that legalized "3.2" beer. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk


  • UK's most endangered butterfly back from the brink...
  • New mushroom species found in Norfolk (don't eat i...
  • Porpoises use ‘sound searchlight’ to track down pr...
  • Keeping hungry elephants at bay
  • Junk Food Is Making NYC Ants More Like Humans


  • Worm lizards dispersed by 'rafting' over oceans, n...


  • AND TO WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK... (Music that may have some relevance to items also on this page, or may just reflect my mood on the day)