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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Sunday, September 27, 2009

CFZ PEOPLE: Marjorie Braund

Today would have been my parents' 62nd wedding anniversary. But my mother died in 2002 and my father in 2006.

You have seen this picture before. It is my surrogate mother, Mrs Marjorie Braund, whom I have loved dearly for nearly forty years. As regular readers of the bloggo will know she has been seriously ill with multiple cancers.

She has taken a turn for the worse, and Dave B-P (her grandson, and my nephew and heir apparent to the CFZ circus) and I went to see her last night. She was barely conscious and although she recognised us and acknowledged our presence, said very little that was coherent.

Dave and I ask your prayers at this difficult time.

"Reflect on this: The realisation of impermanence is paradoxically the only thing we can hold onto, perhaps our only lasting possession." Sogyal Rinpoche

ORPHANS OF THE STORM

I have to admit that I have always been a sucker for 'the lion lies down with the lamb' or in this case, the 'bobcat lies down with the fawn' stories.

This one was sent to me by Sally from the Puerto Rico Humane Society:

A fire in Santa Barbara, CA last week caused these two beautiful animals to take shelter together. The fawn is 3 days old and the bobcat about 3 weeks old.

The fawn came from "somewhere in the fire zone" and the bobcat from Carpen
taria, CA. area. They immediately bonded and snuggled together under a desk in the Santa Barbara County Dispatch Office for several hours.

Being a Sunday morning I suppose that I should really be saying something profound about how we should all love each other or something.

Well, of course we should, but that's not really relevant to these pictures, which I am posting purely for the "aaaaaaaaaaaaw" factor.

Cute, aren't they?

KILLARNEY LAKE VIDEO: Glen Vaudrey writes

Jon,


I have just watched the Killarney lake video on the blog; a very interesting looking film. I can certainly see what you mean about the giant eels; highly plausible but the mystery animal at 6.44 onwards I have my doubts about.


I have watched it a number of times and every time I see it, it looks less and less like a lake monster. Actually, it looks less and less like an underwater creature.


Being honest, I would say it is a large water bird, which appears to be taking off; as you watch the object move across to the right you can see what appears to be a flapping motion and the animal make contact with the water on a few occasions.


I
would suggest from this image that it is either a large bird taking off or an osprey successfully hunting;

the reason being that the only reason for a fish to break the surface hunting would have to be for insects and it would then require a bloody big fly to attract a creature that size out of the water. It would not, however, be to hard to imagine a bird catching a large fish on the surface that in turn was hunting smaller fish, that in turn are eating the flies.


Interesting lake, mind you


all the best

Glen

I have to admit that the more I look at the video I think that you are partly right. The black dot does appear to be a bird, but the more I examine both the video (at as high resolution as possible) and the photographs that my darling Corinna took, the `torpedo` wake seems to be following the bird rather than being made by it. The bird is actually a `red herring` (if I may mix my metaphors into a gloriously surrealchemical game of verbal exquisite corpse), because the `torpedo wake` bears off to the right as the bird (probably a cormorant or a grotesque shag) flaps on its merry way. Maybe whatever it was in the water was chasing the bird?

CFZ PEOPLE: Max Blake

Max Blake has become very important to the CFZ and to me and Corinna on a personal level over the past eighteen months. He is a good lad, and has done a lot for us all. And now - today - he is off to University in Bristol for three years as a zoology student.

What a long, strange trip it will be...

Now, young Max read what `Auntie` has to say.

KILLARNEY LAKE VIDEO IN THE PRESS

Mysterious shape that looks a loch like Nessie

By Jason O'Brien

Saturday September 26 2009

IS THAT a monster's tail, or might it be more accurately described as a tall tale?

An English zoologist is in little doubt. Jonathan Downes (50) believes that he has pictorial evidence of something very much out of the ordinary lurking in one of Ireland's most picturesque lakes last week.

Mr Downes, a cryptozoologist who investigates unknown species, was holidaying in Killarney when he captured the ambiguous shapes as he looked down on one of the area's famous lakes from a nearby hill.

Read On

LIZ CLANCY: Cryptokid Part Two

I'm sorry but I really dont see the big fuss about this lake monster video. Big deal. Last night new cryptokid on the block, Leo Carney, made a MUCH better discovery, and yes, as you can see, we have a picture.

The Heywood Burney Dragon (pictured with Master Carney, who caught it - what a clever boy!) is an interesting cryptid. Generally speaking, there are three distinct types: green, which goes around spewing 'burney' out of his mouth at people because he's very naughty; the red, which also spews 'burney' out of his mouth because he's very naughty too, but which also loudly goes CHOMP CHOMP on the victim; and finally, the yellow burney dragon. This chap is a decent soul; a reformed soul; he spends his days using his burney powers to cook burger and chips, or whatever meal happens to take the ovenless Heywoodite's fancy. Red and green Burney dragons can be reformed. If a child of less than five is brave enough (as Leo was last night) to go up to one of these heinous critters and shout "No! No! That's naughty! Don't do it no mores!" the green or red dragon will repent and over a period of a few weeks, his hide will transform into that of the jaundiced dragon, and he will proceed to York Street where he will be trained by the head burney dragon chef at Veenas restaurant.

For those of you who are now wondering for my sanity, YOU try being locked in the vestibule for an hour by a two-year-old who wants to look for dragons out of the letterbox!

REACTIONS TO THE KILLARNEY LAKE VIDEO

A creature has been spotted in one of Ireland's deepest lakes--by a cryptozoologist, no less. Jonathan Downes, director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology in Devon, England, saw something strange in the beautiful lake ten days ago....

Read On

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday’s News Today


http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

Sorry if you’re expecting a 3D photo. Due to BT not being very good I’m afraid there’ll be a delay on that. In the meantime here is the news:

Mutations Make Evolution Irreversible: By Resurrecting Ancient Proteins, Researchers Find That Evolution Can Only Go Forward

Britain Braced For Huge Spider Invasion

Butterfly 'GPS' found in antennae

UK warned as plague of bee-eating hornets spreads north in France

That could ‘bee’ dangerous.