Rattled by some unusual sightings

It doesn’t matter whether you spend all your life outdoors, there are still some surprising sights and sounds that you will never ever forget

- LINDSAY WADDELL

I saw something a few weeks ago that I had never seen before. It set me wondering just how many sportsmen and women will have a store of memories of their first pigeon, trout and so on. This memory store does not only contain ‘firsts’; they may well be memorable things they have seen during time spent in the countryside. What may be special or unusual for some could be commonplace for others.

My first the other week was not some stunning new species, but simply a pair of house martins in a Pennine dale in March. In 2020, for example, I did not see my first martin until 28 April, so they are way in front of last year. The martins were followed a few days later, when I was chatting to Dave Baines of the GWCT in my garden, by a solo swallow, It simply shows how variable nature can be.

I come from a glen pretty well north in Scotland and certain birds were simply non-existent. I did not see a kingfisher until I moved to Barningham in Yorkshire. There, one day while erecting a butt on a new flightpond, I heard a call I’d never heard before. I glanced round to see a flash of emerald blue and there was my first kingfisher.

Never to be forgotten and, like many others, though I had not seen one in the feather as it were, there was no mistaking what it was.

Secrecy