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Circular walk No.1 Woodgate Valley to Lapal & Illey (1 Viewer)

Mrs JC

Member
http://www.hawnebasin.org.uk/walks/Roy Burgess/d599e9_c095cafc8c19426ebfaae225aba39217(1).pdf

Lovely walk, more info and map can be found in above link.
I parked up at Black Horse Illey. I went straight at the back of boat cottage missing out the woodgate bit.

Greater spotted woodpecker
F bullfinch
Lots of swallows
Jay
Buzzard
Kestrel
Song thrush
Blue tit
Skylark
House Martins
2 x Yellow hammers in courtship flight
Pheasant
Green woodpecker
Wren

Saw and heard lots of others but couldn’t identify them.
 
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Your route stirred old memories. My Grandad worked at Blue Birds and lived in Hunnington, your walk was one of our regular nature rambles 50+ years ago. The other favourite was pick up the old railway track in Hunnington head towards the Manchester cut across country to Frankley Beeches, down to the Black Horse and back to Granny's for tea.
Have not been over that way for years, going to give them a go.
Thanks and good birding.
 
I don’t bird much around that area but i do remember a Hoopoe, literally on a Vicar’s garden, about 20 years ago:eek!: More importantly i remember Bluebird toffee of my childhood and the ‘Blue remembered hills’ - oh and the distinctive gates:t:

Good birding -

Laurie:t:

Attached: here they are and there are many other evocative images of the factory and workers in its heyday. The iconic building is now light industrial units but under constant threat for housing ‘development’.....
 

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I don’t bird much around that area but i do remember a Hoopoe, literally on a Vicar’s garden, about 20 years ago:eek!: More importantly i remember Bluebird toffee of my childhood and the ‘Blue remembered hills’ - oh and the distinctive gates:t:

Good birding -

Laurie:t:

Attached: here they are and there are many other evocative images of the factory and workers in its heyday. The iconic building is now light industrial units but under constant threat for housing ‘development’.....

I can remember the Hunnington hoopoe and it was the first time I came across Lee Evans, the renowned twitcher.
 
Once met never forgotten - i have known Lee, on and off, since 1980:t:
A lot of negative scuttlebutt imo - he is a nice guy and incredibly knowledgeable if a tad obsessive which i don’t think is ever a good thing...

At least he has given up year listing in the UK and the 50k miles that that entails:t: I last had contact with him when he put out a request for a twitchable, wait for it, Ruddy Duck for his year list:eek!: Following their demise there was less than 20 in the UK. Being the emblem of the WMBC i duly furnished Lee with details of ‘Lonesome Dove’ a solitary male that had taken up residence at Sheepwash although no longer. He twitched that and a Sykes Warbler over at Brum the same morning - damn his eyes;)

In the mid-80’s a Ruddy Duck arrived on Tresco, Scillies, with 2 Ring-necked and several spp of Yank wader so i tentatively ticked it as a wild individual:-C

Good birding -

Laurie:t:
 
Once met never forgotten - i have known Lee, on and off, since 1980:t:
A lot of negative scuttlebutt imo - he is a nice guy and incredibly knowledgeable if a tad obsessive which i don’t think is ever a good thing...

At least he has given up year listing in the UK and the 50k miles that that entails:t: I last had contact with him when he put out a request for a twitchable, wait for it, Ruddy Duck for his year list:eek!: Following their demise there was less than 20 in the UK. Being the emblem of the WMBC i duly furnished Lee with details of ‘Lonesome Dove’ a solitary male that had taken up residence at Sheepwash although no longer. He twitched that and a Sykes Warbler over at Brum the same morning - damn his eyes;)

In the mid-80’s a Ruddy Duck arrived on Tresco, Scillies, with 2 Ring-necked and several spp of Yank wader so i tentatively ticked it as a wild individual:-C

Good birding -

Laurie:t:
Phew ! 50,000 miles per year twitching ,did he ever go to work? I would n't do that even if I could afford it .
 
That was his work mate - it contributed info to the UK400 Club aka the IQ40 Club;)

Healthy subscriptions and the fact you had to submit your own for admission to ‘the club’ to scrutiny by the sole member of its ‘Star Chamber’ led to pages and pages of discussions on forums like this - all good fun. As LGRE was at every twitch and had a memory like a Cloud hard drive it woebetides anybody to include a species that meets with narrowing eyes slamming like a portcullis:-O

Twitchable birds, depending on season, were included (almost guaranteed) on UK birding trips of a week and i have talked to those that like to bird like that and they thoroughly enjoyed them. Foreign trips along the same lines were also offered although a short spell in a Moroccan jail for clipping a kid in a narrow souk alley might have caused pause for thought:C

The year-listing might have stopped, this was pre St Greta of Thunberg, but like everybody of a certain age he/we have slowed down. I doubt the enthusiasm/obsession has - Lee still needs Verraux’s Eagle for, wait for it, Israel so that is something that will keep him awake. What keeps me awake is his sighting of possibly the last known Slender-billed Curlew at their once regular Wintering ground of Merga Zerga.....

Birding is full of banter and characters - indulge in the former and be one of the latter;)

Good birding -

Laurie:t:
 
Once met never forgotten - i have known Lee, on and off, since 1980:t:
A lot of negative scuttlebutt imo - he is a nice guy and incredibly knowledgeable if a tad obsessive which i don’t think is ever a good thing...

At least he has given up year listing in the UK and the 50k miles that that entails:t: I last had contact with him when he put out a request for a twitchable, wait for it, Ruddy Duck for his year list:eek!: Following their demise there was less than 20 in the UK. Being the emblem of the WMBC i duly furnished Lee with details of ‘Lonesome Dove’ a solitary male that had taken up residence at Sheepwash although no longer. He twitched that and a Sykes Warbler over at Brum the same morning - damn his eyes;)

In the mid-80’s a Ruddy Duck arrived on Tresco, Scillies, with 2 Ring-necked and several spp of Yank wader so i tentatively ticked it as a wild individual:-C

Good birding -

Laurie:t:

Hope you meant to put Humes' Warbler or we may have had some pre lockdown surpression! :eek!:
 
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