CFZ PEOPLE: Dave Braund-Phillips

We went to visit Dave in hospital yesterday. Poor boy is quite poorly, but is in good spirits, and when we saw him was sitting up in bed reading a copy of Haunted Skies Volume One.

This is not a publicity photo for CFZ Publications, honest!

He is having an untrasound scan today, and we shall know more about what is wrong with him.

Dear Jess wrote: "Thanks for all the get well messages, he's had another set of blood tests earlier, he's also having an ultrasound sometime today. Yesterday the infection test came back which weren't very good umm so there's an infection somewhere causing Dave all this trauma but we wont know anymore until he's had today's ultrasound, I shall keep you posted. Lot's of love to you all "

I spoke to both him and his mum this morning, and will let you all know what happens next.

NATURAL HISTORY: Corinna talks about tadpoles and bitterns and, indeed, other things

We – that is Jon, Pru and I - had left Woolsery on a bright,blue-skied, cotton-clouded, spring Sunday morning. Our mission? To visit a bird auction in Northam, visitNortham Burrows to do a spot of wader-hunting, call in at Asda to purchase someprovender, and then on to Huddisford Woods to take Pru for a walk, whilevisiting the frog spawn we had been noting for the past few weeks. We also wanted to take a look at some of thewell-used animal track-ways that we were keeping an eye on. Read on...

DALE DRINNON: Unicorns, kappas and mammoths

New on Frontiers of Zoology:

Update on a candidate for Unicorn stories, Submitted artwork by Tim Morris:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2012/03/pristichampsus-procamptoceras.html

And an article on Kappas, continuing the Freshwater Monkeys Discussion:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2012/03/more-on-kappas.html

New on Frontiers of Anthropology:
Reposting of a Cryptomundo article together with my notes at the end why it is relevant and important:
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2012/03/mammoth-megafauna-mammal-massacre.html

ROCK AND ROLL PARADE

One of my oldest friends is a dude called Rob Ayling. We have been friends for about a quarter of a century, during which I founded and built up the CFZ, and he started a succesful record company dealing largely with prog, psychedelic and peculiar music, including stuff by suck luminaries as Gong, Yes, Hawkwind and Rick Wakeman.

I was a music journalist long before I started writing about crypto and fortean matters, and so when Rob asked me if I could do for his empire what the CFZ Bloggo network does for the cryptozoological community, I agreed rather cheerfully. I have missed writing about music and it is nice to be back in the saddle.

There is quite a crossover between people who like the sort of music that Gonzo Multimedia, and before them Voiceprint Records put out, and the people who read these blogs, so whenever there is anything that I think may be of interest to the folk in the crypto community I shall cross post it here.

Do me a favour and check out the new blog:

http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/

And in particular part one of my look at the remarkably entertaining new concept album by Judge Smith, based on the story of 'Orpheus in the Underworld'. It is much more fun than you might think, and completely unpretentious.....

http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/03/judge-smith-tell-me-old-old-story.html

I was a music journalist long before I

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

News and stories from the remoter fringes of the CFZ blogosphere...

From Crypto Squad USA:

• When Bigfoot Winks Out — Micah Hanks on Bigfoot 'High Strangeness'...

From Nick Redfern's "There's Something in the Woods...":

• The Disappearing Bigfoot — Micah Hanks again...

From CFZ Australia:

• Golden Possum no illusion — A cute little baby brushtail possum...

JON'S JOURNAL: Sunday Part 2 - IT'S EGRET SPOTTING TIME

When I was a boy in Hong Kong, just starting out on my lifetime's path as a naturalist, my favourite birds were the little egrets, which then were extinct back in my homeland. As a boy I could quote you chapter and verse how Victorial ladies wore the plumes of these dainty herons in their hats, and that the pressure of hunting had driven these lovely creatures to extinction in Britain.

Nowadays, however, girls no longer trim their headwear with egret feathers, and they are slowly making a comeback. They started breeding here in 1996, and are spreading rapidly. So rapidly, in fact, that for the first time since I was a boy, I got really close to one. We were just leaving Northam Burrows when Corinna slammed her foot on the brakes, and we shuddered to a halt. "Look" she whispered urgently. Unfortunately it took off before I managed to photograph it on the ground.

Huzzah!

JON'S JOURNAL: Strange and spooky sunday (Part One)

For reasons best known to themselves, possibly not unrelated to the fact that I am as mad as a bagful of cheese, the powers that be have changed my medication. As of this morning I am on an anti-depressant called Venlaflaxine which is making me feel woozy
and slightly nauseous.

Therefore the events of today have been seen through a chemical haze (not for the first time in my life, but for the first time in a long time). This is also the main reason why this blog post is in several parts. It is just too complicated to fight through the wooziness and write anything too complicated with too many pictures.

(Note to Liz - fix my spelling pleeeease)

Today's strangeness was compounded by the fact that most of North Devon was shrouded in a sea mist which gave the landscape a Lovecraftian hue. We met Matty and Emma at a Bird Sale in Northam at 1:00, made friends with a pair of rosellas which were ridiculously cheap and which I yearned to own, but as we have absolutely nowhere to keep them, I was brave enough to be sensible.

Then down to the Burrows, which were so misty it was difficult to see anything. Indeed we saw no birds of any interest apart from some scholarly looking rooks until the end of our time there (see part 2). The ponies were taking advantage of the mist and being even more obstructive than normal, wandering around the middle of the road and holding up the traffic, much to Prudence's chagrin. As I have said before, I believe that she gets all ancestral when she sees any ruminants, and remembers the days when her ancestors were bred for bull-baiting. Not being very bright, she can't tell the difference between a bull and a horse, so she growls and barks anyway.