IT'S not just anglers and walkers who enjoy a stroll around picturesque Bolam country park, in Northumberland.

According to recent reports, a half-human, half-ape creature with glowing eyes and a propensity for scaring fishermen is also quite taken with the quiet Northumberland woodland.

News of the report has filtered through to Britain's self-styled professional monster hunters, from the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) in Exeter, who arrived in Northumberland on Friday for a week-long investigation into the sightings.

One of the investigators, Richard Freeman, recounts the tale that sparked off their interest, told by three anglers who saw the beast in the woods surrounding one of the lake's car parks.

"Some witnesses said they saw it in the car park. It was this 8ft figure standing stock still, but they got a tremendous feeling of fear and felt it was rushing at them.

"They were so frightened they didn't look back as they sped away."

This is all bread-and-butter stuff for Richard, a full-time "crytozoologist" making up the party of investigators from the CFZ.

In August, he will be travelling to West Africa to investigate claims of a swamp-dwelling dragon, which is said to be terrorising villagers.

In Northumberland, the CFZ team has been interviewing witnesses, looking into local history and folk lore and scouring the area for Bigfoot clues.

On Saturday, day two of the search, the CFZ was joined by ten other investigators from the Twilight World Paranormal Research Society, in South Shields.

The collection of mediums, dowsers and the curious investigate reports of paranormal happenings and the group even boasts a 24-hour "rapid response" unit.

Also taking part in the investigation was Geoff Lincoln, from the British Hominid Research group.

He said he has received 17 reports of Bigfoot sightings in Britain in the past three months alone. There is even a report of a sighting several years ago in County Durham, which Geoff is due to investigate.

Although opinion was divided, most of those in the wood on Saturday were under the impression that they were looking for a supernatural creature.

Richard Freeman said: "I believe that there are probably flesh-and-blood Yetis in Asia, but I think if such an ape-like creature actually existed in this country, it would be extinct years ago.

"I think what we have here is real, but not flesh and blood. A paranormal entity.

"I go all over the world looking for monsters and you find all over the world there's the same descriptions of strange creatures.

"If these sightings were reported in medieval times it would be called a troll or woodwose."

Saturday's search began with the investigators being split up into two groups.

The first set off with dowsing rods that point in the direction of "unusual activity", thermometers to check for changes in temperature, believed to be a sign of paranormal activity, and electromagnetic field detectors - little black boxes that trace the earth's natural electromagnetic energy.

Adding to the X-Files feel of the expedition were the rucksacks full of cameras, infra-red night sights and binoculars the investigators had taken with them.

Although there were hints that the group had found unusual goings on in the forest, such as extreme changes in temperature in certain spots, most did not come to any conclusion.

While Geoff, 33, a qualified zoologist from the Hominid Research group, said he had not formed any opinions about whether something was lurking in the forest, he was perturbed to find everyone's freshly-charged electrical equipment, from cameras to tape recorders, kept failing.

Mike Halliwell, of the Twilight World Paranormal Research Society, said he did not think they found enough evidence of a Bigfoot to convince the scientific community.

While Anna Kunhi, one of Twilight World's psychics, felt there could be something out there, she did not think it was anything sinister or harmful.

But Jonathan Downes, leader of the expedition and director of the CFZ, kept his opinions carefully under wraps on what he thought was lurking in the forest.

"If I knew that, my dear, I would be a lot richer and I wouldn't be driving a 16-year-old Jaguar," he said.

"But I hope to find out. We have some tentative theories but we will be revealing our findings once we have completed the search."

The world awaits.