Weigh in (57)

Hello, good evening (morning/afternoon) and welcome to wildlife on blog; I am Adrian Blaydonborough and on this momentous day I will be showing you - deep in the depths of this unknown and unforgiving landscape - a creature hitherto considered extinct these last 25 years; its discovery will re-write the past and change the future of natural history as we know it. Come with me now, and with luck on our side we will catch our first glimpse of this most elusive and mysterious of creatures. In sixty years of wildlife reporting I can hardly contain myself, as this will be by far the highlight of my entire career.

We must be as quiet as possible, as one loud noise, one crack of a twig, one light shone in the wrong direction, or even one solitary chippy tea might scare it away, never to be seen again. When we are this close it would be devastating. I can see the clearing just ahead, moving one branch carefully to one side and........oh my god......if I wasn't seeing it with my own eyes I would not believe it, but there it is......

......the fifteenstonesomething.

With all its stories committed to the many volumes of folklore and legend, and its very existence questioned by the most open-minded of naturalists; the fifteenstonesomething has often been treated with the same mysticism as other unlikely animals such as the yeti, or the Loch Ness monster. A delicate creature though it might be, the sight of it now puts tears in my eyes, a song in my heart, and wings to my soul. This my friends, is why I do, what I do.

Not wanting to intrude for too long, we depart the nest just as slowly and carefully as we arrived, and as we leave I start to think of what else might still be out there. Are we yet to discover brand new, exciting species, or might there be other thought-to-be-extinct creatures hiding from human view alive and well in some distant corner of the globe? This experience here today gives me hope. The dodo? the woolly mammoth? or - please let it be within my lifetime - might we even see the ohmygodfourteensomethings? I know how insane it sounds, but as we have proved that an extinct species is not extinct; maybe.......just maybe.......

This has been Adrian Blaydonborough, reporting for wildlife on blog, in the dark depths of who knows where.

Sorry about the wait, but not sorry about the weight (has it really been 57 weeks before using that play on words?? I must be slipping); actually 3.4 pounds off this week weighing me in at 15 stone 12.8 pounds; so rounding up and 0.2 in the bank for next week! Felt pretty sure it would be a good 'un after the week gone by, and feeling good. As always I will keep you posted my friends, but for now GET IN THERRRRRRRRRRRRRE!! FIFTEEEEEEEEEN STOOOOOONE!!!!!'