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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Thursday, December 31, 2009

WHAT IS THE COLLECTIVE NOUN FOR WAGTAILS

I always insist that the CFZ bods take a digital camera with them wherever they go, but now I have been hoist by my own petard, because a couple of days before Christmas, as Corinna and I finished our Christmas shopping, I singularly failed to do what I have been preaching for so long. I reached for my camera, and it was not there. So we had to rely on Corinna's mobile phone which was OK, but not really up to the job.

Pied wagtails are delightful little creatures, and found all across much of Britain and Ireland. They are one of my favourite British birds, but although you never see more than one or two together during the daytime, it has been written of them that they roost together in huge numbers, but until now I had never been priveliged to see one of these mass roosts.

Until now that is. The shades of night were drawing fast, so it was about tea time inthe car park of Tesco in Barnstaple when we saw a mass roost on three trees in the car park. There must have been three hundred of the little birds there.

The thing that I found so peculiar was that the trees were not even slightly sheltered, and I am sure that with even a little exploration they could have found somewhere much more cosy.

But they didn't.

It was a horrible night with snow and hail, and as I was tucked up in bed with Corinna and Biggles, I found myself worrying about the myriad of wagtails, and hoping that they made it through the night OK. But I suppose they know better than me what they were doing...

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