Spark bird - what's yours?

 A spark bird is the bird that started you birdwatching. Over Easter we ended up in Martin Mere WWT doing a duck hunt with the grandchildren. Unfortunately the ducks were hidden in the collection area so I was unable to get to any of the hides. I had Merlin on for some of the time and it registered a Cetti's warbler but I failed to hear or see it so it isn't on the list. What did spark my interest was the South American collection which contained some Chiloe wigeons and this was my spark bird back in 1974.

Chiloe wigeons at Martin Mere

The Golden duck!!

We were visiting a friend in Blagdon in Somerset and his dad owned and ran a chemist shop in Weston-Super-Mare. We went to visit him and he was selling binoculars. At that time I did not own a pair and usually borrowed my Dad's extremely heavy 10x50 if I wanted to see anything. I bought a pair of 8x30 binoculars for £13.50 and we went off to Chew Magna reservoir on the following day to try them out.  I saw and recognised a lot of the basic wildfowl - mallard, tufted duck, mute swan coot etc.. but there was one strange looking duck I did not know. Later that day we came across a bookshop which stocked a copy of  The Hamlyn Guide to birds of Britain and Europe by Bertel Bruun and Arthur Singer (which I still have by the way - see below) so I bought that and started looking for the strange duck and was a bit confused to find that the bird wasn't in the book. On returning home I now had binoculars and a book so I started to look for, identify and record birds and that was the start of a lifelong and very enjoyable hobby. It was another 13 years before I finally nailed the odd duck on Chew Magna reservoir - a Chiloe wigeon. It must have been an escape from a local wildfowl collection clearly doing its bit to confuse novice bird watchers.

Interestingly I started looking at birds locally in the autumn/winter of 1974/1975, but the records in my book show that I did not see a redshank until  August 1975 in Ballycastle. How could I have driven from Ards to Greyabbey to visit relatives and not seen a redshank along the shore? I ticked off new birds in the book with a date and a location, and it makes for interesting reading 50 years later.  Magpie is not recorded until February 1975 at Fair head - seems there weren't any in Bangor in those days!! Here's a couple of random pages and a battered cover to bring back birding memories. Doubtless some of you started with this book or owned a copy in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Finch page

Duck page

Working at an update on Bolton over Easter and patch updates since our return.  Listing will resume in the next post. Please feel free to name your spark bird in the comments.