22nd May 2010
Patch Adams Theme
An
early morning ride and push down the length of the sea wall on the southern
side of the Ribble Estuary and off onto the road near Crossens Marsh. I took a
small detour to look at an old friend, an erratic from the ice age, well one of
the ice ages anyway; a large granite boulder left by the ice many thousands of
years ago. I brought a group of sixth formers here back in 1978 as part of
their General Studies course when I was an unpaid, yes unpaid teacher at Christ
the King School, a Catholic secondary school in Southport. Unpaid because I could
not get a proper teaching job that year and to live, I worked all evening, five
until ten at a local KwikSave supermarket, a building now gone. Imagine the
thrill of twelve Sixth Formers going by bus to see a large rock!
Cycling
on, I went down the main road into Churchtown in order to reminisce over where
I used to live back in the seventies. Back then I had one year living with my
future, albeit briefly, Mother-in-law, Joyce over her florist shop in Marshside
Road, Southport. I had no music with me when living there except an Emerson,
Lake and Palmer double album, vinyl of course it being years before CDs, called
Works and Joyce had a few classical albums and a Carpenter's Greatest hits
album. Well the ELP got played to death; four sides of to me wonderful sounds
but then again, I was starved of rock music! As for the Carpenter's I learnt to
appreciate the guitar solo on Goodbye to Love. The lyrics would feature in my
life sometime later. My first record had been The Planets Suite, bought for ten
shillings back when I was nine years old
so, the classical albums Joyce had were a delightful musical escape too. I seem
to remember that they consisted of a large Reader's Digest box set of
favourites, probably all excerpts. Now I dislike excerpts of Classical music,
preferring the whole piece but beggars could not be choosers back then. I would
listen to all the pieces again and again. The version of Debussy’s Clair de la
Lune, well, I must have worn out the groove with how many times I played that.
One
thing I do remember from those days was having to catch the bus from school to
the supermarket and one Jean Alexander getting onto the bus at Southport
railway station each day. Jean was much better known by her 'Corrie' name of
Hilda Ogden yet you could not have had a greater contrast between actor and
person. Hilda, course and loving wife of the fabulously rough Stan Ogden, a
perfect example of a loving working class couple. Jean Alexander, aloof and
posh yet lovely in her own way and always polite to those who spoke to her on
the bus and notice this, this lovely lady caught the bus! I nearly always fell
asleep on this bus, knowing that I would have five hours shelf-stacking to do
ahead of me that evening.
Having
seen that the florists was now a wool shop, I rode around to the lovely park in
Churchtown and went into the old Victorian Botanical Gardens building. More
memories here and more again as the aviaries I remember so well were still
there.
I
cycled down the road I used to walk, Marshside Road, when on my way to my patch
so many years previous and how that birding area had changed. Now an RSPB
reserve, Marshside, back in 1977/8 the area was a few muddy pools in
each corner of extensive fields and a small scrape-like pool at the edge of a
gravelly car park where a road of sorts took lorries out onto the estuary to
collect sand began. To the right of the car park the sand was taken to what we
back then termed the sand-winning plant where graded grains made finer …. sand.
Adjacent to this plant of large sifting machinery and conveyor belts the
saltmarsh plants ended. To the east saltmarsh, to the west sandy, estuarine
muds and all areas rarely covered by the sea except at extremely high tides.
There was even a small roadside hide just along towards Crossens back then, now
gone.
The
sand-winning plant was derelict, the road out onto the estuary was still there
and it was this that I took to explore the outer estuary sands and muds. The
saltmarsh plants had extended their range immensely in the thirty two years
since the area had been my patch. Yet after reaching the saltmarsh end, the
sand and estuarine mud I remembered from my many long walks from the past was
still there, as dangerous looking as ever away from the road. Waders galore of
course were here; Redshanks nearer the saltmarsh edge than the large flocks of
Dunlin, a few Grey Plovers, Oystercatchers and Knot with Bar-tailed Godwits in
small groups.
Back
near the car park a flood of memories came back to me as I sat down and looked
around at what had become of the pools and muddy areas. All were now dried up
and gone.
I
remembered sitting for an hour or so on a cold day, counting the waders and
finding four Little Stints within a large group of Dunlin. A birder had come up
to me and asked what I had got. On being told Little Stints, he did not even
lift his binoculars before writing Little Stint down on a page in his notebook
and walking off. At least he had a notebook I suppose.
I
remembered my first ever Curlew Sandpipers seen here yet it was my first Grey
Phalarope I remembered more. I was enjoying a passionate moment in the car with
my fiancé, Joy at the time and I remember it flew past the window. End of the
cuddling!
I
remembered rescuing a Greater Black Backed Gull from some ensnaring fishing
line trap and having taken it to Martin Mere WWT reserve, where the vet cut off
the fishing line, removed the many fishhooks. After the vet gave it antibiotics
and vitamin injections, I took it back to Marshside and released it onto the
beach only to see a group of other Greater Black backs attack it, kill it and
eat it!
I
remembered finding a Baird's Sandpiper, an extremely rare American wader and
thinking I was the first to have seen it. It turned out it had been there for a
couple of days but back then I was not on the local grapevine and there were no
pagers or internet sites such as Birdguides and RBA, the Rare Bird Alert.
I
stood on the corner of the junction with Marshside Road and remembered how a
rather old lady had said that she had just seen a Magpie carrying a carrot at
just this spot many years ago. Think about that one a while!
Eventually
I went into the small and efficient visitor's centre and hide of the RSPB Marshside
Reserve. Here I enjoyed some RSPB volunteers' company and had a cup of coffee.
It was sad to hear that centre had been broken into just a couple of days
before and there had been a couple of expensive telescopes stolen.
Avocets
and superb summer-plumaged Black-tailed Godwits were the highlights here with
great views over the field and pools; both birds that are always a delight to
see.
Next
it was off around the sea wall road towards Liverpool. It may have taken a
couple of hours but imagine, when I arrived at Seaforth Docks, knowing that the
only views would be through the iron fencing on the Crosby side, I tried. I could
not see much, definitely not the hoped for Little Gulls, so I cycled around to
the heavily fortified entrance and asked
a guard at the barriers whether it would be possible to go in. Unfortunately no
came the reply after fifteen minutes or so because an American cargo ship had
just arrived. Alert level A. Not too upset, after all I thought then I was only
missing out on possible Little Gulls, I went and caught a train from Liverpool
Lime Street Station to go on my small rest period with my parents. Ten minutes
into the journey, whilst passing Runcorn, a text message from an Upton Warren
birder, Phil Andrews - Wilson's Phalarope at Seaforth. AAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!
The return to the Liverpool was just four days later and the phalarope from
over 'the Pond' had gone. In retrospect I should have got off the train as soon
as I heard that such a bird of such high calibre was available. My addled
thinking whilst going past Runcorn, was that now I was taking a form of carbon
transport, namely the train, I could not count the bird that day. So I might as
well go on according to planned itinerary and have the short rest. NO! Next
time I will get off the train. I will return to Seaforth if necessary and even
if I have to sleep rough outside the huge fence, I will wait until the next day
and see the bird.
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