<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Lancaster and District Birdwatching Society Newsletter
Newsletter of the Lancaster and District Birdwatching Society
Welcome to 2005.
Spring 2005
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Hopefully you will find some useful news or edifying facts in this newsletter.

We have had good attendances and excellent speakers at the meetings since the last newsletter and hope to see as many as possible in the spring session for some further expert presentations. The originally booked March speaker has had to withdraw but we have a substitute on a similar topic. Also note that due to Easter it is a week earlier than normal.

John Wilson has written the following introduction to our special event, 'What Birds Know About Music' by Edward Cowie on 25th April.

"Many members will remember Edward Cowie when he was Composer in Residence at Lancaster University during the 1970s. I certainly do for he spent a lot of time at Leighton helping with reserve management and taking part in such things as bittern boom counts where we recorded the song output of bitterns over a 24 hour period, he used to like doing the 3am to 6am period with me because it saw the most activity! He was the first to discover that bitterns could be identified individually by their boom and with his musical expertise he would tell me which key a bittern was booming in! He left Silverdale for a prolonged stay in Australia although he regularly returned to Britain for he was Composer in Residence to the Liverpool Philharmonic. He returned permanently to Britain 10 year ago and now holds a Personal Chair in Creative Arts at Dartington College and is Associate Composer to the BBC Singers.

I have just returned from spending 5 days with him and his wife Heather at their Devon home and he told me a little of what he would be covering in his talk on bird song and music. He played me some remarkable recordings which raised so many questions about bird song. I am looking forward so much to his talk, he is one of the most interesting and inspirational of lecturers. I am certain we are in for a treat on April 25th. Please don't miss it!"

Phil Holland




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