A childhood book returned ..

I have very clear memories of birdwatching as a youngster. Heading off to "the dell" with my dad's pair of field glasses, and "The Ladybird Book of Garden Birds". The pair of Bullfinch pictured on the book cover are iconic. Whether or not I actually managed to see this species at the time, is beyond my aged recall?

Ladybird Books were always an important part of our childhood libraries. There is no doubt that some of the titles were hand-me-downs from my older brothers; with a few being purchased later, from my own pocket money or book allowance.

The slender tomes informed my understanding of the natural world. Along with the thoughtful family gifts of a field microscope, an encyclopedia of natural history, and a chemistry set, they fired an appetite for scientific enquiry, which I held onto, into my senior years of school.

However, as my teenage years progressed, my interest in natural history, was put on hiatus. I began to pursue a plethora of other intellectual and sensory distractions. When I started my "A" Levels, and left home, I did not pack up the library and scientific tools, they were left behind. I simply forgot.

Fast forward - in the course of a recent telephone conversation, with my older brother - he told me that during a rummage through a second-hand book-stall - he had found a copy of "The Ladybird Book of Sea and Estuary Birds". To both his and my delight - written on the inside of the book cover was the legend "Peter Hogans" sic. in my neat but juvenile handwriting.

A second legend written in pencil, in FULL CAPITALS reads LFC WILL ALWAYS RULE - a homage to the football team, comprising of my schoolboy heroes: Ray Clemence, Emlyn Hughes and Kenny Dalglish.

When I visited, I discovered that my brother was also the keeper of our late father's field glasses. The visit became an emotional reunion with both my childhood self, and the tactile and tangible memory of our dad.

Later we sat on the beach, under a Simpsons sky. Ate fish and chips, battered sausage and chips from the Fairground chippy. Inevitably, Herring Gull and Black-headed Gull gathered, each in their turn eyeing up our lunch,

I waxed lyrical about the Mediterranean Gull. What a smart looking bird it is, and as a more recent colonist, a gull that was not included in the Ladybird Book with which I had just been so happily re-acquainted.

Almost immediately, we heard a cat's call overhead - and a smart summer plumaged Med Gull landed within meters of us. Perfect timing, perfect gull, perfect day.