Very sad news. I remember we bumped into each other all the time when my local patch was the Mersey Valley & Chorlton WP in particular. I even took his Bird Report round when I was one of the editors of the GM Annual Report. A bit of twitching and a lot of patching, an all round birder Sadly missed
So sorry to hear about this. It's not too long ago I saw him at Audenshaw and had a brief chat. It knocks you back a bit when you've seen someone birding recently then they're gone. RIP.