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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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

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.



BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



The Trail To Bigfoot Team captured some strange vocalizations
The Trail To Bigfoot Team writes "We return to an area that has a history of activity. We think the howl was a response to slamming the vehicle doors.


CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. (AP) -- Bigfoot believers have gathered in western New York and some insist the legendary Sasquatch's footprint is getting ...

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

From CFZ-USA:

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN ON THE WILD PRAIRIE

The Gonzo Daily - Tuesday
And so tomorrow is the big day. 10:00am Graham and I have an appointment with the DWP Doctor. I would like to thank all of you who have sent messages of support. If there is any justice I shall sail through, because I am obviously fairly seriously ill, and to slightly misquote Moloch, in Watchmen, mine are not the sort of diseases from which I am ever going to recover. But, as we all know, the system is broken and I truly have no idea what is going to happen.
Lee and Yvey write that they think that it is outrageous that I am having to go through this. It is kind of you to say this but I don’t agree. Things like this are happening to people who are much worse than I am, and some of the horror stories that I have heard would make your hair curl. I think it is pretty outrageous that anybody has to grovel to the powers that be for a pittance. In the words of the man I am interviewing at one o’clock: “Do they owe us a living?” Yes, I think they damn well do!
RICK WAKEMAN: Walsall school pupils' rap wins road...
Alex Winter has a huge task ahead of him as he tac...
Arts Q&A: Barbara on the Beatles, WALL-E & rugby
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Tangerine Dream -- Ph...
Gonzo Weekly #153
www.gonzoweekly.com
Martin Barre, Jethro Tull. Marbin, Gail Zappa, George Harrison, Joe Deninzon, Stratospheerius,Transmetropolitan, Digitiser, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, Mack Moloney, and Yes fans had better look out!
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#153) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Martin Barre on the cover and an interview with him inside. As well as Doug’s interview with the famous Jethro Tull guitarist, he also interviews Joe Deninzon from Stratospheerius,Jon interviews Dani from Marbin, John B-G celebrates the life of Gail Zappa, and Corinna sneers at some more tacky pop memorabilia, Mack meets Nick Redfern, plus we
welcome A J Smitrovitch as a regular contributor.... We review volume two of Transmetropolitan, and Xtul are back in the deep woods. Neil unearths a hidden gem, Thom waxes all poetical like, whilst the legendary Roy Weard continues his regular column, C J Stone does his, and Mr Biffo has more of his regular slices of insanity from the world of Digitiser 2000, and there is a radio show from Strange Fruit, one from Friday Night Progressive and another from Mack Moloney. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons wanting a snooze (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who stayed up too late last night, 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:
George Harrison, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, Black Sabbath, Blur, New Order, Gong, Marillion, System 7, Steve Hillage, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Cory Wells, Frank Watkins, John Edward Jennings, Brand X, The Raz Band, Johnny Winter, Alexis Korner, 13th Floor Elevators, Nucleus, Spirits Burning, The Pirates, Martin Barre, Joe Deninzon, Stratospheerius, Dani Rabin, Marbin, John Brodie-Good, Gail Zappa, Andrew May, Roy Weard, A J Smitrovich, My Dad's LPs, Mr Biffo, Hawkwind, Sea Shepherd, Dave Brock, Xtul, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Mark Laff, Generation X, Robbie williams, Michael Jackson, Hacienda Club, Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne, Uriah Heep, Ray Davies, The Mamas and Papas, Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, Bobbie Gentry, Yes, Billy Sherwood, Steve Howe, Alan White, Joey Molland, Tony Levin, John Lennon, Neil Nixon, Virginia Belmont's Famous Singing & Talking Birds, Kartikeya
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
Issue 152 (4th Eden)
Issue 151 (Corky Laing)
Issue 150 (Roger Dean)
Issue 149 (Tony Palmer in Space)
Issue 148 (Wally Hope)
Issue 147 (Thom the World Poet cover)
Issue 146 (Bee and Flower cover)
Issue 145 (Dave Brock cover)
Issue 144 (Percy Jones cover)
Issue 143 (Billy Sherwood cover)
Issue 142 (Daevid Allen and Spirits Burning cover)
Issue 141 (Rick Wakeman cover)
Issue 140 (Jaki Windmill cover)
Issue 139 (Raz cover)
Issue 138 (Galahad cover)
Issue 137 (Chris Squire cover)
Issue 136 (Neil Nixon cover)
Issue 135 (FNP cover)
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:
SPECIAL NOTICE: If you, too, want to unleash the power of your inner rock journalist, and want to join a rapidly growing band of likewise minded weirdos please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk The more the merrier really.
* 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 56 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and a small kitten totally coincidentally named after one of the Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, 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 young lady called Jessica. 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, and the adventurous kitten?

TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS

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 that 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.


  • NEWSLINK: 10-yr-old boy attacked by leopard
  • UK: NEWSLINK: Big Cat ‘On The Loose In Kent’ After...


  • ARTICLE: As Tiger Numbers Dwindle, Will Smugglers ...
  • NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Tuesday

    ON THIS DAY IN 1938 - Du Pont announced "nylon" as the new name for its new synthetic yarn. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Snow leopards face 'new climate change threat'
  • Flying ants mate close to home, produce inbred off...
  • These social bees farm and eat fungus or die
  • Big monkey voice 'means less sperm'

  • Dogs 'can trace origins to Central Asia'

  • 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)