My kind of Bird Watching Summer 2001

My interest and love of birds stretches over 50 years.  Times have changed, not only in the way we observe them (no binoculars) but also in the availability of good field guides and changes in the countryside.  My first bird books were the series by Eric Hosking including "Birds of the Day" and "British Birds Nests and Eggs".    Not very good for bird identification but good for describing how to photograph them and set up a hide! I remember the winter of  1947 when I saw my first Waxwings in Lancaster and the hundreds along the canal banks at Carnforth where I lived.   This gave me a good feeling, as this was the first rare species of bird I had identified from a bird book. This was the year that along with my friends we found many dead birds often frozen solid in the ice on ponds, the snow was deep and was still lying in drifts well into June. It had one advantage however, my collection of bird wings increased dramatically.

Around this time I began to collect birds eggs like many other lads, and I remember buying a Wryneck's egg for one shilling and three pence.  It was a small white egg very similar to a woodpecker or a dipper but the shop I bought it from belonged to the famous (to every collector) taxidermist,  Mr Bert Murray.  He had is shop in Carnforth .  All our eggs had single holes in them, not a hole at  either end made with a thorn. The hole was made with a drill made from nails of different sizes, filed at the end to make a cutting point. The "contents" were flushed out using a fine piece of glass tubing, drawn out with heat, by inserting the fine end of the tube into the hole and blowing, the egg was emptied of it's contents. I remember well, seeing his collection of bird eggs, they were held in a beautiful wooden cabinet. Each drawer he opened contained full clutches of every species of bird imaginable, some were of the same species but had different markings or variations in colour. They were all neatly labelled with date and place taken .I felt no shock or horror at seeing them, only a sense of awe. When he came to the drawer with the Great Auk egg in I was stunned in amazement.

How times have changed! My first sighting of a  Bittern was lying shot on the floor of the taxidermist Shop, I heard later that the local constabulary had made enquiries about the shooting but had not recognised the stuffed bird mounted in it's case on an adjacent shelf! Attitudes have changed, but also the numbers of what were relatively common birds have changed. Like John, I remember the Nightjars onWarton Crag, but I also remember seeing Barn Owls in many of the local barns and hunting along hedges and banks. In those days the harvest was often stored until threshing in large stacks. The threshing machine was towed by a large steam driven engine with a huge, flywheel this powered the belt that operated the thresher.. All the local farmers used to help, but the best part was near the end when lots of mice and rats emerged to be chased by all the lads.

Yellow Wagtails seemed common (these were unfortunately not counted) on the wet meadows of the Keer.  The Corncrake  called from fields near Kellet Bridge and even where Carnforth High School is built now. In summer the swifts, 20 to 30 in numbers would fly screaming up the road where I lived, at what seemed knee high. There were few cars about and certainly no telephone wires to impede their progress.  In the late 40,s and early 50,s our horizons for bird egging opened up when "bikes"became available.  Some had 3 gears,  mostly we had none!. Our first trip was to Burn Moor,  where we heard there was Black-headed.Gull colony.  The trip was successful.  We also found Ring Ouzel, Curlew and a Meadow Pipit.  We also went to Aughton big wood for Heron,  no luck!   Foulshaw Moss was also a favourite trip.a long way..but by this time we had given up egg collecting, we only ate them! We did find a Grasshopper Warbler's nest and saw a L.E.Owl but could not find a nest. By the late 50's (by car ) the planted conifers had nearly obliterated the gullery with only 3 or 4 nests found. Will they return again when tree felling opens up and changes to a large moss area?  The gullery at Crag Lot was also destroyed by shooting and improvement around this time.

My birding interest reduced in the late 50's and early 60's due to Nat. Service, although I did get good views of the occasional exotic.   My other distraction at this time was three children and years of Night School.  In the early 1970's,  I attended an RSPB Film show and, after being proposed and accepted, I joined the LDBWS.  This was a major turning point in my interest in birding. The late Dennis Taylor asked me to assist in surveying Williamson's Park and I agreed.  The year was 1972 Dennis and I split the Park in two halves and we surveyed each half alternating the halves.    After Dennis passed away,  I carried on and in 1982 started surveying Mt. Vernon farm at Quernmore.   Frank Whitaker had farmed the land since1947 without using any artificial fertiliser or pesticides. The land is a good mix of habitat with woodlands, small wooded valleys and the River Condor at the eastern boundary.   In1983,  I extended the area by adding adjacent land on two other farms to conform to the BTO's requirements on size. It was also possible to census Halton Park for Ted Ingleby, this took from 0400 hrs to around 1100 hrs, but it was only once a year. There were many other schemes, which I participated in,  such as the Single Species Surveys of  10 kilometre square SD55 for Lapwing and Wood Warbler and other species, the final year of the Atlas of Breeding Birds 1968-1972, the New Atlas 1988-1991, the LDBWS Atlas, the Lancashire Atlas and the Checklist for the LDBWS. 

Along with the new Breeding Bird survey I thoroughly enjoyed all this work, it was hard, enjoyable but very time consuming There was a sense of  achievement when the reports are finally printed.  These are real records that are useful and will stand the test of time. Besides all of this census work, I was lucky to go on two trips organised by Pete Marsh to Scotland and the SouthWest.  This was a new experience for me, very hectic and tiring but so rewarding when you see so many superb birds in such a short time.  I remember well Pete, driving at the time, pointing out a white winged gull at some considerable distance from the road.  On holiday, birdwatching plays a large part in the enjoyment, but other aspects of wildlife are not overlooked.   France has been one of my favourite destinations for  many years and easy to get to by car, it is nice to see birds rare in England, which are much more common there.  The Greek Islands are also a favourite place with Lesbos and Cyprus being my tops for birds. The numbers of different species coming in off the sea in spring is overwhelming and you can miss so many because of the terrain.  Most of my holidays/birdwatching are taken either in Spring or Autumn, when it is normally cooler, cheaper and best for birding.  I keep a record of all sightings. 

I like to see rarities but do not travel long distances to see them.   A large crowd of birders at rarity sites puts me off,  especially when unorganised and therefore involving seriously disturbing birds in order to see them.  The most memorable of recent sightings was when we came back from visiting Ward Stone for Dotterel.   There had been a report of Common Crane at Jenny Brown's Point.  When we arrived there it was dusk, and the light was fading fast.   We could see a pair of birds dimly in the distance, but it was when they began to call and then dance, it brought home to me what pleasures bird watching can bring to everyone.

My days spent surveying birds has reduced but I will still go to all the local sites along with my friends and enjoy their company in beautiful countryside.   We cannot bring back the past but I feel that my experiences in childhood and later in life will never be the same again, there have been too many changes in the countryside.   There are still many good birds to be seen, with more birders willing to spend long periods of time checking the sea and the Tip for gulls, we can see the impressive results in previous Newsletters.  My type of Bird Watching might be perhaps boring to some people but we can all enjoy birding in different ways, mine has certainly changed over the years!

Brian Townson