Thanks Colin and others for shedding some light on the finders and advising of the correct first date for the Pratincole record. I think I must have made a mistake transcribing my dates with 20th instead of 22nd when collating my sightings years later; my original very scruffy notebooks were lost or discarded years ago either during a "tidy up" or one of our many house moves. Here's to another perhaps in 2009?
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The entry in the 1974 Lancashire Bird Report says :
'Pratincole 1 at Scotsmans Flash, Wigan 22-26 May (L.B.Rept.,A.Middlehurst) and 1 at Freckleton 24 May(M.J.A), seen by many up to and including 29 May. Glaerola pratincola in each case.'
Also in the 1974 Report was my own record of a Wryneck in Birtle Dene entered as: ' 1 seen and heard Birtle Dene nr Heywood 1st and 2nd June (CGR) - the first midsummer record since 1912'.
Peter Hill, who did not know me, included it in his Rochdale Birds 1977 but not in his Millenium Birds, which was a pity, as it was an exceptional record.
Yep I'm still a whipper-snapper then, feeling better now I'd already been birding nearly three years before I saw the CP. I was well keen, covering Mersey Valley, Carrington, Dunham, Rostherne & Tatton at least twice a week. I was on Scilly the year after and would have been there the year before if the police hadn't picked up a certain thirteen year-old hitching down the M5 (that's another story). Never looked back - sometimes sideways, but not back
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As someone even older than Michael!! this brings back memories of seeing Pete at Martin Mere where a famous loss of my new 'scope occurred, it being picked up by a Bangor University 'student' in mistake for his battered one of the same make when I rushed out of the hide to see the bird. The sequel being that by sheer chance and a casual remark I met the same student next year at Loch Ryan and we discovered the truth of what had happened. The bad news was that my 'new' scope was by then in the same condition as his old one. It made little difference which I chose to keep. Ah, the good old days and don't despair Pete, for the next 30 years at least !!!!!!
Hi Pete. I'm impressed, you must have only been 14 when you saw your C. Pratincole in 1978! I wish I had started birding at that age; I might have twitched the McQueen's Bustard of 1966 in Suffolk, after all, I was 24 then AND mobile; - that would have been a blocker! cheers, Mike
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Hi Mike. To quote the BBRC rarity archive for Collared Pratincole:
1974 Lancashire & North Merseyside Scotsman's Flash, Wigan, adult, 23rd to 26th May. J. N. Dymond and the Rarities Committee, British Birds 69: 363
Being a young whipper-snapper, that bird was a couple of years before my embryonic birding life. My first, and most memorable, was the Martin Mere bird in 1978, hawking above my head. It was nice to reminice until I realised that was 30 years ago , I feel old and depressed now .
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I wasn't aware that anyone was photographing the Pratincole during our visit, ( I don't think autofocus lenses had been invented then!), and it would have been like trying to photograph a flying Swallow whilst wrestling with manual focus. If anyone did photograph it during its three day or so stay, it would be terrific if a photo were discovered.
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A stunning tale Mike, many thanks for posting that. If you've never been back to Scotman's Flash since then you definitely wouldn't recognise the place, as the housing estate nearby has expanded significantly since 1974.
I have often wondered if anybody has a photograph of this bird?
I think I can shed some light on this bird. In the Leigh OS Annual Report for 1974, it was attributed to F.A.M. (et al) whom I believe to be Tony Middlehurst, then Chairman of the Leigh OS, and was listed just as Praticole, present 22nd-26th May. [There were a number of national rarities, which I discovered on doing a review of rarity records in the mid 1990s, shortly after becoming County Recorder, which had never been submitted to BBRC (not all from the Leigh area). Some of these were then submitted, and all except one accepted.] Local government reorganisation, resulting in the formation of Greater MAnchester as a county, took place on 1st April 1974 (as anyone employed in local government at that time will well remember - it was hell on wheels!). However, Greater Manchester as a bird recording area did not happen until 1976, as a result of a national conference to sort out recording areas in 1975. Until 1976, therefore, the Manchester Ornithological Society produced a report which covered a 15 mile radius from Manchester Town Hall. The Wigan Flashes were not within that area. So this record was not included in their 1974 or 1975 report. It may well be in the Lancashire report for 1974 or 1975 but I don't have a copy of that (Paul Heaton may be able to tell us?)
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
I am of course a very recent and therefore junior contributor to this website having been made aware of it by my long time birding soulmate John Rayner, though I suppose at 67 years of age I now qualify as an old timer. This feeling is reinforced by the possibility that I may be the only current participant with direct experience of the first Collared Pratincole record for the county back in 1974. This was a memorable event for me as it was the first real twitch that I ever undertook (if I discount a White-rumped Sandpiper that I took in on the Weaver Bend in my lunch hour when I worked in Ellesmere Port). For those who may find this interesting this is the story of that first twitch and the element of mystery surrounding that bird. In 1974 I was living in Connah's Quay, Clwyd; according to my records it was May 20th, and I received a phone call from a Bolton friend that a Collared Pratincole had turned up at Scotsman's Flash Wigan, a place I had never visited before, or since. With a Welsh birding acquaintance, Bill Evans, we set off and arrived after about an hour in the early evening to find perhaps 20 or more people standing around, milling about, and fanning out scouring the surrounding fields; it was apparent that no one there had seen the bird for some time, or indeed at all. After some 40 minutes, it was looking rather hopeless, and one or two started to drift off as others arrived full of expectation only to hear negative news. You can all identify with the feeling, - a fool's errand (in my case the first of many!). We slowly started heading back towards the car along the edge of a ploughed field, when suddenly a shout was heard. "It's up!!" We turned to see people running and stopping to raise their bins and then running again. The bird had risen from the ploughed field where it had been resting amongst the furrows, completely unnoticed. What followed was like fairyland. I saw the bird almost immediately without having to move and it commenced hawking over the field right above our heads making passes down to 15 feet, showing all its characters, and looking like a big hirundine crossed with a Ringed Plover! It went on like that for some 15/20 minutes and everyone was absolutely ecstatic. The old time Lancashire birders there, those of Frank Horrocks generation, were saying it was the best bird ever found in Lancashire (I think it was Lancashire at that time). That was for me at that time the most stunning magical bird I had ever seen, and even now having seen all the Pratincole species, that remains "the boy". Whenever I see a Collared Pratincole I always think of the one at Scotsman's Flash. The mystery arose when I scanned through the BB rarities report of 1975 covering rare birds in Britain for 1974, as there was no mention of the record. Accordingly I submitted the record to the Rarities Committee and it was accepted and included in the following year's report as an additonal record for 1974. I did of course stress that I was not the finder of the bird and didn't know who was. Also I have my date as May 20th whereas the date reported in (presumably by me )was 23rd May present for I think 3 days. The question is -Can anyone shed any light as to who did find that bird, and can the discrepancy on the date be clarified/corrected?
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I'd already been birding nearly three years before I saw the CP. I was well keen, covering Mersey Valley, Carrington, Dunham, Rostherne & Tatton at least twice a week. I was on Scilly the year after and would have been there the year before if the police hadn't picked up a certain thirteen year-old hitching down the M5 (that's another story). Never looked back - sometimes sideways, but not back 
, I feel old and depressed now 
.