For at least the last decade, one Edward Grimshaw, a "birdwatcher" in the Bedford area has bombarded the British Birds Rarities Committee with hundreds of rather unusual sightings. Each week, a neat envelope wafts down onto BBRC's doormat. It is, of course, from the aforementioned E.G. And every time, they open it to find ...... .... Edward himself, surrounded by a rather unlikely array of birds. He doesn't actually write anything ..there's no descriptions, no sketches, just him and a crowd of rarities sometimes mixed in occasionally with ordinary stuff. Over all those years, he's never missed a week. He's always outside what we assume to be his local cafe/pub ? So ...the obvious question has to be ... WHY ? But .... who takes the photographs ? Mrs. Edwards ? The young Edwards ?? It seems unlikely. Is he really expecting to get any of them accepted ? Is he delusional ? Is he having a larf ? Is he completely fictional ? Nobody knows ... the address on his letters was visited once by a BBRC representative, but it doesn't exist. The highest-numbered house in the street is No. 83, but his is 305. And here's another odd thing ..... one... just one .... of those pictures actually did have an acceptable rarity in it. In that ivy-encrusted tree in the background,there was a real Short-Toed Treecreeper ! That picture is now framed and hung up in the BBRC office. But .... as there were no details, no description, no nothing, it never got accepted. Here he is ..well, we assume it's him..... this was the first picture he sent in. ...and all the rest have been in the same style. They have even tracked down which publications he has cut the pictures out of, not that it has led to anything. So ... if you know this bloke, even if it's just " knowing where he goes birding" the BBRC would love to know who he is, and why he does it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OK ...that's the main thing done. Last night there was ..amazingly ... a 15-minute programme about "seawatching." You can probably get it on that "Listen Again" thingy. Or whatever they call it nowadays. Well worth a listen. As is this .......
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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