In Memory on Your Birthday

Happy Birthday to My Dearest Father

You would have been 99 today – 2nd November

 

I've been reminiscing about "the good ol days" as we used to call them, back in the day when the "Saturday crowd" would arrive, which included friends like Malcolm & Eileen White, Beryl & Jim Jolly, Eileen & Geoff Buxton, Mary & John Dixon, John Sheldrake, Peter & Ruby Jackson with their daughters Debbie & Ruth, Richard Richardson, Geoff Want, Chris Knights, Maurice & Audrey Eccleshell, Ron Clark and Martin Coates and many many more. Lots of laughter and fun, particularly with Beryl Jolly, who always had you in stitches! 😂 Beryl used to make handmade Easter eggs for my sisters and I, she was always making something to donate to the NOA to sell and raise funds, as did Eileen Buxton. In those days we had a full counter of things for sale at the observatory, such as the all the latest bird books, prints, pens, badges, bird lists, postcards etc etc.

 

Special memories of spending so much time at the observatory, almost every weekend and in school holidays as your "Assistant Warden". Father paid me £2.00 for the weekend out of his own money! The excited school children who arrived in a coach from local schools to spend time at the observatory, learning from you and watching you ring a bird, which they were always fascinated by and seemed so enthralled and asked so many questions. The little aquariums you created to replicate a mini habitat for whatever you decided to put in there for a few hours, were very much enjoyed by the children. I recall a Slow Worm in one, a couple of Bank Voles, a Toad or a Frog, a Common Lizard, any large moths you had caught that day such as a Popular Hawk Moth positioned on a piece of bark to demonstrate camoflauge.I just remembered we used have coach parties from RSPB groups from different parts of the country too!

 

The excitement of finding a new bird and sometimes a very rare bird, such as the time we caught the first Thrush Nightingale for Norfolk on 14th May 1977 in the first Heligoland trap (there used to be three)! I remember you being worried about this and having to take far more measurements of the wings/primaries etc and tail that you normally would do and taking lots of pictures with your then film camera. If I start recalling all the rare birds, I will be writing for hours, but I particularly recall an escaped (we presume it was an escape) Pekin Robin which we caught either in the Heligoland trap or a mist net (I can't remember which now) and I have a painting that local artist Geoff Want painted of this cracking little bird. I remember watching four Bluethroats together on the NWT Forestry (as its known) and Red-backed Shrikes used to breed behind "the back of the bungalows". Flocks of 20-30 Turtle Doves would be a regular occurance in the Spring. How times have changed!

 

Winter days of cooking chestnuts on the Tortoise Stove in the obs, nodding off in the canvas deck chairs and being abruptly woken up by an exploding chestnut. Its quite amazing how far one exploding chestnut can spread across the floor! I'm rambling now! The snow and the ice and the Broad Water freezing over in particularly cold Winters, the geese on the marshes, the Short-eared Owls and sometimes we would catch Long-eared Owls in the Heligoland traps.

 

You should have got some kind of recognition for your dedication of working 7 days a week, 364 days a year, only taking Christmas Day off for 33 years, along with the struggle to keep the NOA going from 1962. You didn't get any recognition, but what you achieved from nothing was truly remarkable.

 

Happy times and memories, that are forever in my heart

 

Thinking of you today and always 

Always in my thoughts

Always with you

 Until we meet again

💔  💔  💔