AUBREY: Eagle gets goat

Hi Jon, I am glad to have read that the Weird Weekend went off almost as planned. You work extremely hard and I for one would like to thank you for your website, which I visit religiously every day. And for On the Track, which I love; I guess I am addicted. Jon, I found a strange video on the internet of what looks like a golden eagle hunting a rather large goat; you have to see it. When I was young I used to hear stories of eagles carrying off young children, but the experts said that an eagle would not be strong enough to carry off a child; you judge.

NEIL ARNOLD: All Bizarre Creatures Great & Small Part One

I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a mod schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

A SEA MONSTER?
From the Rochester Gazette & Weekly Advertiser, Tuesday January 12th 1836 – Number 460 (Page 2) – extracted from Enniskillen Chronicle

‘The huge monster of the deep that recently cut the fishing-boat across, whereby three men met an appalling death off St. John’s Point, on the Donegal coast, has been since thrown ashore dead. It’s said to be one of the largest ever seen in this country, and our correspondent adds that on being opened, a young one, measuring 10 ft in length was found inside. Its death is said to have been occasioned by a part of the boat which it may have swallowed at the time, but this is to be questioned as the gullet of the animal is not sufficiently capacious to admit a large portion of timber. We expect to hear further particulars next week. It is to be hoped the produce of the fish will be applied to the relief of the families of the unfortunate sufferers.’

AN EAGLE!
From the Rochester & Weekly Gazette Advertiser, Tuesday February 16th 1830 – Number 465 (Page 4).

‘A large eagle was washed ashore at Deal (Kent) a few days ago, and has been presented to the Canterbury Philosophical Institution.’

A MONSTER!
From the Rochester Gazette & Weekly Advertiser, Tuesday May 3rd 1831 – Number 528 (Page 2)

‘On Saturday April 16th, a ewe, the property of Mr M. Lawson, of Fullford, nr York, yeaned a lamb of perfect conformation and healthy appearance, and which is alive and well; together with it was also produced an animal of the following singular malformation. Its head assimilates with no genus or species of the animal creation that we are acquainted with. Its forehead is arched, and the top of the head covered with a greyish hair, resembling that of a dog. It has cheek bones, high and prominent, like those of the human species, and only one eye of diamond form, remarkably large, and fixed in the middle of the brow, being projected over by a flesh protuberance somewhat resembling the ears, which are fixed in their natural position. There are no nostrils, and the mouth is wide, the upper jaw projecting considerably beyond the upper part of the mouth. The tongue, which is large, is thrust out so that the top extends over the jaw. The body partakes more of the form of a dog. Altogether it forms a curious object, when viewed in front and in an upright position, the countenance, from its unnatural association with some human form, reminds one of the fabled Cyclops, of mythological note. This curious freak of nature has been presented to Mr Phillips for the Yorkshire Museum.

MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: Feathered fish and eagle tales

Richard Muirhead is an old friend of the CFZ. I have been friends with him for 40 years now, since we were kids together in Hong Kong. He is undoubtedly one of the two best researchers I have ever met; he and Nigel Wright both have what Charlie Fort would have no doubt called a wild talent; a talent for going into a library, unearthing a stack of old newspapers, and coming back with some hitherto overlooked gem of arcane knowledge. Twice a week he wanders into the Macclesfield Public Library and comes out with enough material for a blog post..

In response to Jon`s plea for more effort on the blog front,I have decided to submit three between now, (Sunday afternoon) and next Thursday evening, so here we go.I n a strange coincidence,a few hours before I read the blog of a few days ago (sorry,I forgot to note down the exact date) about the furry fish, I noticed the following:

(I had that morning over the phone asked to use the microwave instead of the microfilm. D`oh!)

"Mr Brougham,of the museum,Maryport (1) who got lately (?) into his possesion a fish covered with feathers, has since caught one covered with hair." Macclesfield Courier. December 11th 1813 p.2

(1) There are two Maryports in the United Kingdom. One is in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland the other in Cumbria on the coast. A Google search on "Maryport Museum" uncovered a Maritime Museum in the latter Maryport, with a whales tooth etc. So I e-mailed them yesterday, Saturday April 4th, to ask them about the above mentioned fishes and I await, in hope, a reply.

"A fine eagle was killed on Friday se`night by the game-keeper of T.Thornhill Esq of Riddlesworth (2) In length from the end of the beak to the end of the tail, was three feet,the breadth,when its wings were extending,seven feet one inch,its weight nine pounds."Macclesfield Courier January 15th 1914 p.2

(2) Riddlesworth is in Norfolk

Those with a good memory amongst you will recall that a few weeks ago I recorded another huge eagle, this time near Stockport,Cheshire.

On Tuesday April 14th I hope to go to my bookish haunt; the Newspaper Library in North London to look at a County Mayo newspaper, or Achill Island paper if the latter exist. This is really because I am interested in the cryptid the Achill Island wolf. Between now and next Thursday I will have a more definite date/geographical location in Ireland of whatever newspaper I will look at.

Search requests for any cryptid to:richmuirhead@ntlworld.com please.

Finaly,if anyone has Fortean Studies vol.7 I am willing to spend up to £40 on it o.n.o.

GUEST BLOGGER RICHARD MUIRHEAD: A couple of interesting stories

As regular readers willknow, Richard is one of my dearest friends, and furthermore someone I have known since 1970 when we were children together in Hong Kong. He is a natural polymath, and one of the best researchers I have ever met. Proof of this particular pudding comes in these two stories which he fished out of his local public library..

I found the following two stories in the Macclesfield Courier and Stockport Express or Cheshire General Advertiser.(MCSE or CGA)

1."Wild Man- A wildman was lately caught in the forests of Hungary,by
a Wallachian, who first perceived him seated upon a tree, eating
leaves. He appeared to be 24 years of age,and had his back and chest
entirely overspread with a thick covering of hair: his skin was a dark
yellow. He expressed only confused cries and a sort of murmer. He
became melancholy at the sight of a forest or a garden and sought to
hide himself in such places. After having been kept 2 or 3 years in
captivity,he began to eat dressed meat,and from that moment his manners
became less savage; and his body losing a considerable portion of its
hairy covering,became less yellow. He is now quite civilized,and
performs the office of water-carrier;but never advances so far as to be
able to speak words and sentences in succession. MCSE or CGA March 23rd
1811.

2. An eagle of an immense size,was shot lately at Heaton Norris near
Stockport by Mr Geo.Bromiley of Gorton,which measured from tip to tip
of the wings 7 feet ten inches,in length 3 feet 4 inches,and weighed
nearly 18 pounds. This mighty monarch of the air was fired at when in
the very act of attacking a young pig,and being only slightly wounded
in the shoulder and back part of the head great pains were taken to
seure him alive,but from the very stout resistance he made,it became
necessary to kill him to prevent his escaping. He is now in the museum
of Mr Priestnall, surgeon, in Stockport, and is supposed to be the
largest Bird of the kind ever shot in England. MCSE or CGA March 30th
1811

Shadow of the Thunderbird

While you read this, I shall be in London, doing my bit to further the onwards march of the art world, so once again it is Guest Blogger time for Richard Freeman again.

This time we are publishing an unprinted article from a few years ago on the contentious subject of Thunderbirds - those enormous avians from Native American mythology. Could there be any truth behind the legends?

Have you ever been walking in the countryside on a warm summer’s day and the wind suddenly whips up sending clouds hurtling across the sky? The great dark shadow sweeps over the land and you find yourself freezing like a rat in the shadow of an eagle. Strange, as there is no living bird large enough to carry off a full grown human. Or is there?

Across the USA and Canada Indian tribes tell stories of gigantic birds. They go by many names. The Lakota call them Wakinyan, the Ojibwa knew them as Animikii, and to the Illinois it was the Piasa, the bird that fed on men.

These giant birds were said to be so vast that the sound of their beating wings caused thunder and lighting flashed from their eyes. They are associated with rain fall and storms much like dragons in the Orient. The likeness of these monster birds graces totem poles of the tribes of the Pacific north-west. Rock art often depicts them shooting forth lightning in the form of zig-zag lines. Thunderbirds were said to be so huge that they could feed on whales. Some legends tell of how thunderbirds were perpetualy at war with giant, horned water serpents (strikingly like sea and lake monsters reported from the continent today).

So much for ancient legend; but thunderbirds, or something very like them, are still being reported in modern times.

Claude Schaeffer in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences ecords several accounts of Blackfoot indians seeing thunderbirds in the 19th century. In 1879, the daughter of Red Paint, Mary Jane and her white husband saw four giant birds at Chief Mountain, Glacier National Park, Montana. Big Crow (fitting name) saw a giant bird with a bald head and a feathered ruff about the neck in the southern section of the Blackfoot reserve in 1897.

Another hotspot is Pennsylvania. In 1940 Robert L Lyman saw a thunderbird standing in the middle of Sheldon Road near Coudersport. It took to the air when he got within 150 feet of it showing a 25 foot wingspan.

In March 1957 Hiram M Cranmer watched a thunderbird flying at a hight of 500 feet around Renovo. It’s wingspan was 25-30 feet. Sightings continued in the area for three weeks.

The most infamous encounter with a thunderbird occurred at 8.30 pm on July 25 1977 in a suburban garden in Lawndale, Illinois. Ten year old Marlon Lowe and his friend Travis Goodwin were playing in the Lowe family’s garden when two huge black bird swooped down and attacked the pair. Travis escaped by leaping into a swimming pool but one of the birds grabbed the 65lb Marlon and carried him at a hight of ten feet. His screams alerted his mother who saw her son spiritedly punching at his attacker untill it finaly let go. Marlon’s mother, father and two family friends all witnessed the attack. The birds resembled giant condors. The attack turned Marlon’s ginger hair grey.

Other victims might not have been so lucky. In Febuary of 1895 10 year old Landy Junkins of Webster County, West Verginia was sent on an errand to a neighbour’s house. She never arrived. Her foot prints were found in the snow. They ran off the path and into a field as if she was being chased by something. In the field her tracks seemed to show that she was running in circles as if to avoid something. Then they just ended as if she had been lifted from the ground. No trace of her was ever found.

A few days later bear hunter Peter Swadley was attacked by a bird the size of a man with an 18 foot wingspan. The monster sunk its talons into his back. He was saved by his gallant dog who attacked the bird. The monster turned on the dog and ripped the brave animal appart before flying off with the carcass.

In Tippah County Missouri in 1878 Jemmie Kenny an 8 year old boy was snatched by a huge ‘eagle’ whilst he was plaing marbles. The creature drpped the boy when adults shouted at it but the deep wounds and fall proved fatal to the child.

In 1947 there was an outbreak of livestock killings on farms around Ramore, Ontario, Canada. The culprit was a monster bird with a hooked beak, huge talons and eyes the size of silver dollars.

By 1948 the action had switched to Illinois were 12 year old James Trares reported a grey bird the size of a B-52. If the word of a boy was not good enough, how about a former army colonel. Walter Siegmund saw something very similar on April 4th of that year and conclude that ‘it could only be a bird of some tremendous size’.

These huge birds are oftern mistaken for aeroplanes. In 1948 at Overland Illinois Clyde Smith, his wife, and their friend Les Bacon saw a huge shape in the sky they assumed was a plane untill it began to flap its wings! Then they realized they were observing a bird with a wingspan of over 20 feet. Other witnesses included policemen and flying instructors. Clive Dunn saw the giant bird on 30th April and said that it was as big as a piper club plane.

In May 1961 a New York buissnesman was piloting his light aircraft over the Hudson river when he was buzzed by a bird of stupendous size. He described the encounter in a local news paper as like a fighter plane making a pass.

What could be behind these stories? In the fossil record of the Americas there are a group of gigantic new world vultures known as teratorns. These giant birds evolved to feed on the carcasses of the now extinct mega-fauna of the new world. The largest of them Argentavis magnificens had a 25 foot wingspan. The last of this group of astounding birds supposedly died out around 10,000 years ago along with the mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths and giant cameles on which they fed. But could one species have survived perhapes switching to bison carcasses and the odd human as a food source?

There is a problem with this hypothosis. Teratorns, like all new world vultures, are not closly related to other birds of prey such as eagles and old world vultures. They are actualy more akin to storks! Their feet are not adapted for grasping and killing like those of the thunderbird. In fact, their feet are rather like chicken’s feet!

Maybe we are dealing with an unknown form of giant eagle or perhaps freakishly large individuals of known species. One theory of mine is that known species can, on occation, for reasons that are as yet unclear, throw up giants. Recently a six-foot long panther-like cat was shot in the Australian outback. DNA analysis showed it was a feral domestic cat! For years I have been convinced that many lake monsters are mutant strains of the common eel but grown to 25-30 feet long. If I am correct them perhaps some birds may exhibit this ‘goliath gene’ as well. Only time will tell.