What a pleasure to hear yesterday of a report of a Cuckoo in Shibden Valley, see Calderbirds blog.
Many years ago when we were young birders and knew every bird and nest down there because of the hours we put in it was common for us to sit on the hillside listening to the Cuckoos, up to 3 usually between Shibden Head and the Shibden Mill Inn, waiting for sightings as they flew from canopy to canopy on a summers evening.
The then working Sewage Works was a favorite area for the Cuckoo but this was a dangerous practice as it was out of bounds to the public and this is where we discovered on a few occassions that we could outrun the resident Great Dane that lived there.
Shibden Head was also a good spot by the Hanging Royds barn but that was also a spot to beware on Sundays when the Shibden Gamblers appeared. Gammers, as they were known, came from all over to play illegal toss ha,penny by the Hanging Royd barn and thousands of pounds changed hands. Lookouts, known as Crows were on all the paths leading to the barn and anyone getting too near were steered away in a polite way by being told that the path was too muddy , these fellows were harmless but a bit frightening to us as kids. We used to sit on the opposite hillside watching the gambling take place.
As well as the Gammers in Shibden there were the Oggers, these were normal everyday working fellows who used to go down Shibden with knee pads and binocs crawling round the hillside watching courting couples. An elderly neighbour of ours at that time was a well known ogger and would come home many a time with a black eye or teeth missing when he,d been caught.
All these strange goings on in the valley in the sixties but even then you could walk anywhere down there without even thinking of being harmed, how times change.
Got a bit side tracked from Cuckoos there but my childhood birding memories of Shibden are still a bit of a passion to me, the sort of memories that kids dont get anymore.
Hope I havent bored you.
BS
