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...

Search This Blog

WATCH OUR WEEKLY WEBtv SHOW

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON
Click on this logo to find out more about helping CFZtv and getting some smashing rewards...

SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER



Unlike some of our competitors we are not going to try and blackmail you into donating by saying that we won't continue if you don't. That would just be vulgar, but our lives, and those of the animals which we look after, would be a damn sight easier if we receive more donations to our fighting fund. Donate via Paypal today...




Thursday, September 05, 2013

WEIRD WEEKEND 2013: Darren Naish

WEIRD WEEKEND 2013: Andrew Sanderson

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

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. So after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo Corinna took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.






DALE DRINNON: Giant land crabs, Frontiers of Anthropology, Benny's Blogs,

New at Frontiers of Zoology:

Help Us Rescue Terrapins from Storm Drains-Wetlands Institute


Drain Rescue----Are you interested in helping young diamondback terrapins? Join The Wetlands Institute staff and dedicated volunteers in an effort to rescue baby terrapins that have fallen into local storm drains.

Many newly hatched terrapins fall into storm drains every spring and fall as they make their way to the salt marsh after hatching from their nests. This spring volunteers rescued 645 babies from Wildwood Crest and Sea Isle City storm drains!

Volunteers help The Wetlands Institute by expanding the range and number of storm drains that are checked through our Terrapin Storm Drain Rescue Project. To contribute, all you’ll need is good eye sight and an extended net to free terrapins from the drains. The process is simple too. You can check drains at a monitoring location and on a schedule convenient to you. We just require that you fill out and submit datasheets so we are able to identify and target storm drains that prevalently have high numbers of trapped hatchlings.

If you are interested in rescuing hatchling terrapins from storm drains in the South Jersey area, please come join The Wetlands Institute for a Terrapin Storm Drain Rescue Workshop on Tuesday September 10, 2013 at 6:00pm. This hour-long workshop will provide you with a background on our storm drain rescue efforts, teach you how to monitor storm drains, provide you with training necessary to utilize our datasheets, and supply you with the equipment needed to rescue a terrapin from a storm drain.

To register for this workshop, please e-mail Katie Sellers at ksellers@wetlandsinstitute.org with your name and number of people in attendance by Friday September 6, 2013.

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN EMULATES A BOY SCOUT

And so another jolly day is afoot, and being the early autumn (my favourite time of year) there are all sorts of joyous things afoot. The new album by Belle and Sebastian, for example, is worth checking out; another collection of odds and sods in the vein of 'Push Barman to open old wounds', it is patchy in parts, but largely a thing of total wonder. There are a couple of percussion heavy tracks that don't really work for me, and a Shadows pastiche that - IMHO - is totally pointless. But there are many gems. For example the song 'Meat and Potatoes' about a couple trying to spice up their sex life, including the line "we tried a can of cold whipped cream, [but] I was allergic to too much dairy", is classic Stuart Murdoch. It is probably not going to be the most played B&S album in their canon, either by me or by anyone else, but it is well worth a listen.
Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet.
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/09/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_4.html


*  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:
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html

* 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 54 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) 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 orange cat?

FUN WITH POULTRY: Happy Eggs - Falling For Clooney Audiobook




Aside from the lush ranges, playhouses and sandpits we provide for our hens, here at the happy egg co we're always looking for new and innovative ways to keep our girls happy.
With this in mind and with the trusty help of renowned British author and hen-keeper Catherine Alliott, we’ve produced our very own romantic Chick-Lit audiobook to play to our girls to help them settle at night after research found that the human voice can have a calming effect on laying birds.
We’ll be sending out Falling for Clooney to all of our happy eggs farmers to play to their girls in their hen houses at night!
Why not download it for yourselves and play it your own hens!

WEIRD WEEKEND 2013: Richard Freeman followed by a story from Silas Hawkins

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


Yesterday’s News Today

On this day in 1666 the Great Fire of London came to an end. In only a few days most of the City of London (as in the current confines of the financial fiefdom not as in the entire the urban conurbation) had been burnt down.
And now the news:
  • Simon King: Badger cull science is skewed to appea...
  • Three-foot-long alligator killed on Ont. highway
  • Fire Salamanders in the Netherlands Wiped Out by N...
  • In agony, walker who stepped on a poisonous giant ...
  • Goldfish, the classical music aficionados: The fam...
  • BADGER CULL: Public opinion
  • Crocodile 'stalks' New Zealand man for two weeks
  • European rhinoceros beetle found in Worcestershire..

  • A typical street scene in London as one might see on any of it's streets: