40 Years Ago Tomorrow

On the 28th April 1974 there were 2 Avocets at Broomhill Flash, I saw them on my very first visit to the Wath Ings (Old Moor) area. A couple of weeks earlier my Biology teacher (sorry I can't remember her name) had 2 copies of the Barnsley Area Bird Report for sale, I bought one and couldn't believe what I read, the birds that were seen in the Barnsley area. I remember reading that Herons were seen and I had only ever seen them on the Norfolk Broads on holiday. Another boy in my class, Ian Neville, bought the other report and told me he was going birdwatching on the following Sunday. I decided to go with him not really knowing where we were going.

On the Sunday morning we caught the first bus from Barnsley to Wombwell at Stairfoot (no roundabout in those days), incredibly, to me anyway, there were another 2 birdwatchers on the bus, Dave Standring and his son Chris. Not long after getting off the bus we approached Broomhill Flash (its not much different these days) where Dave pointed out the Avocets. He seemed to be very excited and I remember him saying you needed to go to Minsmere to see Avocets, I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. Myself and Ian carried on to Wath Ings and then Bolton Ings, I don't know what Dave and Chris did. I can't remember much more about the day apart from telling John Hewitt about the Avocets and seeing him hobbling across the coal waste on his crutches! The days events must have made a lasting impression on me as I soon became a Wath regular.

We had to wait a long time for another Avocet in the area and incredibly it was 25 years to the day (28th April 1999) before I saw my next one on Wombwell Ings. Thankfully they are more regular nowadays, 5 on the Wader Scrape tonight for instance.

Therefore today is the last day of my first 40 years going down to Wath. Here's to the next 40 years, put the date in your diary, 28th April 2054, I will only be 94!!!!!!