Sunday 31st. October 2021
Years ago when I lived in Preston my friend and neighbour Dan found me one Sunday morning.
"I'm off to Pendle Hill to see the dotterels. They're only there for a couple of days. On their way back from Africa to Scotland. They stop off at Pendle to feed on special vegetation. Do you want to come.?"
I wasn't all that sure what Dan was on about but and I was caught up in his excitement, and I'd been on other whacky adventures with Dan over the years. By now my English springer spaniel Barney had sensed there was something afoot and, softy that I am, I couldn't deny him an outing, but I was saying to myself,
"These rare, and I guess, shy birds only appear unpredictably for a brief period and we will be clomping up there with a crazy springer, like using a Challenger tank to go to the pub, no chance."
However I didn't want to disappoint Dan so off we went.
As we emerged onto the summit plateau we saw in the distance a line of folk. As we drew closer, with Barney on lead, we could see tripods and binoculars deployed. We arrived to see twitchers in their olive drab garb watching half a dozen dotterel within a few feet quietly pecking away at their favoured vegetation and about as shy as Mick Jagger at Glastonbury.
Something similar happened today. BC gave me a call to say, "I'm off with Mike to try snd see the salmon leaping up the River Lune at Halton, do you want to come?
I never refuse an outing with friend BC if at all possible and I had no hesitation in agreeing to meet them. But, I had similar thoughts that accompanied the dotterel event. "We have had torrential rain and the river will be in full spate. Salmon numbers have declined so much that there is less likelihood of spotting them these days, and we won't be employing professional naturalist's knowledge of salmon behaviour relating to time of day, water flow, prevailing weather and the like." I feel a bit ashamed of this negative reaction, but what mattered most was having a get together with good friends, and that is what we did making for a thoroughly enjoyable outing ending up with a good lunch at the Ship Inn at Caton.
Of course this story contrasts with the unlikely outcome of the dotterel day - we saw no salmon.
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BC's detailed account which includes other interesting happenings can be read on his blog:
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Déjà vu.
ReplyDeletePS. The video wouldn't work - says it is private.