Memories Of 50 Years Ago by Jeff Hurst

As most if not all of you will already know the Leigh Ornithological Society is 50 years old this year. This got me thinking back to when it all started.

I had already been in contact with Dave Wilson about something and then he told me about a meeting that would take place and it was about possibly forming a bird society. I attended this meeting where a small group of people explained about this idea they had about forming a bird society and told what they were trying to achieve etc. There was some good feedback from the people that had gone to the meeting and from what was said by the end of the evening it was decided that it would be worth forming a society so I joined on that evening before a bird society had even been formed and this was to be the Leigh Ornithological Society.

Of course it took a little while to set things up and put everything in place but eventually I received Newsletter No 1 dated November 1971 which was just three side of foolscap long. For any of our younger members “foolscap” was the size of the paper we used to have before “A4” appeared on the scene. This was a little longer than A4 but slightly narrower and on it was the bird records for August, September and October 1971. At the beginning of the newsletter it started by saying that in March of 1971 it was decided to form the Leigh Ornithological Society.

At first there were no organised site trips as such but in Newsletter No 4 was printed a list of local bird watching sites with a contact name at the side so you could arrange a visit for a look round. For Pennington Flash you could contact Dave Wilson, for Borsdane Wood – Roy Yates, Chat Moss was Howard May and so on. I had never been to Chat Moss and didn’t know much about this area so eventually I wrote to Howard May saying I was interested in a visit. He wrote back to say a few other people had also shown an interest in the area so he would arrange a walk and would get back to me with the details on where and when to eet up etc. Not long after this, as good as his word, he wrote to me again to say he had arranged for a walk on 6th May and this was in 1973.

From memory Charlie Owen and Tony Middlehurst came on the walk plus a few other people but I am not sure they were. Two of these people I got to know while on the walk were Harold Theobald and Bryce Rigby. The three of us got on well together so after this we would usually sit together or near each other at the Derby Room meetings. Sometime later we started with our trips outside our area when we usually had a spring trip around the middle of May and an autumn trip in September/October and these were coach trips that were usually fully booked up. When we arrived at our final destination everyone would split up into smaller groups and again Harold, Bryce and I would normally walk round together.

In 1985 I received the shock news that Harold had died so after this Bryce and I would sit together at the Derby Room meetings until sadly Bryce died in 2019. Over all these years every now and again we would talk about one or other of the trips we had been on but one trip that came up a few times was our trip to Chat Moss with Howard May, he had “walked our legs off” that day but I think we had all really enjoyed it.

As for the birds we saw, these are as follows: - There were the more common birds such as Magpie, Blackbird, Blue Tits etc., but also Wheatear – Whitethroat – Goldfinch – Corn Bunting – Lapwing (with young) – Greenfinch – Curlew – Willow Warbler – Yellowhammer – Redpoll – Swallow – Pied Wagtail (carrying food) – Reed Bunting – Partridge – Little Owl (being mobbed by Robin and Blackbird).

We also heard Pheasant, Cuckoo and Turtle Dove but unfortunately didn’t see these and in a more wooded part of the Moss we found a Mallard’s nest with eggs in it. Not a bad list and I had seen or heard 4 new species and it was interesting to walk round a new type of area I had never seen before.

I am pretty sure I won’t be around for the next 50 years but it is possible the Leigh Ornithological Society will be to create another 50 years of memories; so for the moment this is in memory of Howard May, Harold Theobald and Bryce Rigby.

Jeff Hurst