Little Bustard – Avon Valley near Christchurch, Dorset, 3^rd January 1988

After a vigil involving some ten hours over the weekend, I finally successfully twitched the Little Bastard!

I had been there futilely staring at empty arable fields, talking to other similarly frustrated birders, between 15:30 and 16:30 on the 1st, 12:00 and 16:00 on the 2nd and 12:45 and 16:15 on the 3rd January.

As a result, I had managed several Grey Partridge, Pheasant, Lapwing and Golden Plover, and very little else.

This was after leaving my Dad’s in Chesterfield, where I had been spending Christmas / New Year during the festive season shutdown of the pipeline project I was working on at Wytch Farm near Wareham in Dorset.

News had broken on Wednesday the 30th December, but it wasn’t until New Year’s Day that I travelled back to Dorset. The wet hour I spent standing on the verge of a muddy lane staring aimlessly at a field late that afternoon was a foretaste of what was to come. I travelled to my rented flat in Swanage that evening and returned for another four hour vigil the following day.
This was so mind-numbing that I vowed I wouldn’t bother the following day; besides the forlorn pursuit of gawping at empty arable fields from an increasingly trashed lane, the twitch involved a journey of at least an hour (although only 20 miles) via the chain ferry between Studland and Sandbanks and then through the Poole–Bournemouth–Christchurch sprawl. Not appealing. 

However, I cracked on the third day when there was positive news again, partly because I would be going back to work on Tuesday the 4th January and then have no chance of seeing the bird, even if it did stay and give itself up.

So it was, that finally, at about 16:15, late on the Monday afternoon (remember, this was the deep mid-winter!) some cyclist / young ornithologist cycled up to us and told us that the bastard was in the Avon Valley. Directions were offered (and skilfully ignored) and a convoy of about seven cars reversed / charged off, with the result that they all ended up following me! But where were we going to? I’d no idea! Anyway, by default, and detour, we arrived at some suburban close, which, coincidentally was where he had suggested we should be.... .

A quick sortie over various fences, etc., and I arrived at a small cluster of birders looking across the floodplain of the Avon, at apparently, two grass tussocks behind which the bird was rumoured to be. It was by now going dark. A Moorhen was the source of a mild flutter. The gloom, both nocturnal and emotional, deepened.

However, hope was on the far away floodplain in the form of a birder who had detached himself from another small cluster of birders, and then some horses, to gradually move towards where the bird was supposed to be. Did he know where the bird ‘was’? Or was he just coincidentally moving in that vague direction?

Left a bit, right a bit ....... keep going.... .

He moved past the imagined spot. Nothing happened. It was a huge anti-climax. It was now a moonlit night, a gloaming evening.

Our chance had surely gone? He continued, and suddenly, wings flashing white in the moonlight, as the bird flushed. It flew off downstream, but then across the river, before then, temporarily at least, alighting in front of us. It then flew off again, but came comparatively close overhead in doing so, above the horizon, and in front of the moon....... .

The euphoria that then erupted after it had departed was an experience – spontaneous cheering, clapping and handshaking!!!! We all trooped back to our cars completely elated.

You bastard, you gorgeous little bastard!!! So this was it. In flight it was similar to a flushed Pheasant in its actions – a fast flight with stiff wing beats. Initially it flew low and then landed and appeared to stand alert in the field before us. It then took off again and flew high overhead, when its long neck and short tail were visible. The only colour visible (as it was largely seen in silhouette) was the white wing panels. 

As suggested elsewhere, this account was the very first I prepared, as, a few mainly sub-rares and a couple of genuine rares (such as Greater Sand Plover and Black-and-white Warbler!) excepted it was the ‘most stonkingest’ bird I’d seen up until then. It was the 266 species on my British list. At this time, the fantastic The Shell Guide to the Birds of Britain and Ireland addressed 263 species that were considered as ‘Regular’ and then some 240 more that were classed as ‘Vagrants’ (the British list only being c.500 back then!!).

It was also the start of a new year, and the past few months living and working in Dorset (and the advent of Birdline, or certainly me becoming aware of Birdline, a happy coincidence) had transformed the horizons of me, a simple lad from Lancashire, who had spent ALL of his teenage years (my ‘apprenticeship’) going around with a pullus ringer (every Sunday throughout the year, and every evening throughout the breeding season, school or no school) who DESPISED twitching.

Now, suddenly, I was seeing exciting birds in often (but not always!) exciting circumstances, and for whatever reason, I was minded to try to capture this. And the rest is, as they say, history….. .

When I re-visited this account to do the final word-processing, re-formatting, editing and sketching, etc., (on the basis of the original notes and sketches) in mid-December 2021, I quickly discovered that there was seemingly very little material out there about the occurrence, apart from the obvious write-up in Birding World and the 1988 Rare Bird Report in British Birds, etc.. Certainly, there appeared to be no images of it, although I vaguely remembered that it had been filmed in flight by a local news camera crew (I probably saw the footage one evening after having not seen the bird during my forlorn vigil earlier that day to add to my despond….).

So, I took to Twitter on the 16th December to make an appeal for help sourcing any such material. I included an aerial image of the Avon Valley north-east of Christchurch and said:

“Little Bustard. New Year ’88. Coward’s Marsh, Christchurch, Dorset. I know this bird was – rather randomly – filmed in flight (and maybe on the ground?) by a BBC News film crew. Is anyone aware of any photos of the bird (or stills from the footage?)? I’m writing up things”.

The response was fantastic. Mark Golley (aka The White Falcon) tweeted that, “The finder, Alan Hayden, kindly allowed me to use his painting in an old RBA round-up though. May be of interest to you? Best, Mark.” (The round up had involved details of the subsequent Dorset record).

Mike Gibbons followed this up by tweeting, “The BBC used my Shell guide book to show a picture of the Little Bustard on the South Today news. I’m sure somewhere I may have the whole item on video. Not sure where though. Saw the bird after a chase around the Avon Valley area. Bruce Parker was the BBC reporter”, and, then, fantastically, in a follow-up, tweeting, “I have just traced the footage on YouTube. Buy me a drink later”, followed by a link to the footage.

And then, finally, James Rhys-Hughes provided more detail about the re-finding of the bird the day after the original sighting by Alan Hayden, as follows, “It was myself that stood on it the following morning at Coward’s Marsh. I can remember it as if it was yesterday. Also trying to get a certain Mr Hayden out of his pit shouting I’ve got it get up FFS”.

I responded to all of this by saying, “Excellent. I’m entirely grateful to whoever it was who flushed it from the marshes on the Sunday – it then did a flypast including a brief landing down in front of us on a bank overlooking the floodplain on the edge of suburban Christchurch; a moonlit last chance saloon!”

Following these successes, I returned to Twitter the next day to say:

“So, I’ve returned to my write-ups of my ‘ticks’, my new species accounts. In an attempt to get images of the first, the New Year ’88 Little Bustard, I appealed to Twittersphere. Result!! I was pointed in the direction of this new item. Thanks all!!!” I then include the link to the video on YouTube of the footage from the BBC South Today news item.

This is available here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV_yffOco2E

Also, for the sake of completion, the Rare Bird Alert write-up that Mark Golley referred me to that details the subsequent West Bexington bird and references the earlier occurrence is available here:

http://www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/weeklyroundup2014-46.aspx?s_id=543185378 

I’ve also included a better image of Alan Hayden’s painting here too and a couple of stills I extracted from the footage (well, this is the first such account and so I wanted it to be as complete as possible).

Alan Hayden’s evocative painting of the Little Bustard in the Avon Valley (copyright Alan Hayden).

Two very poor stills from the YouTube video of the BBC Look South news item, poor, but hey, what a bird!

Finally, in relation to this wealth of illustrative material (where once there was a dearth!), in the late 1980s / early 1990s my very good friend Paul Pugh used to visit Richard and Hazel Millington in Cley-next-the-Sea. Paul is a graphic designer, and as such did some work for The Bird Information Service in relation to both Twitching (the forerunner of Birding World) and early editions of Birding World itself. On one such visit, Richard had put to one side a whole lot of his own artwork for throwing out. This included the pen and ink drawing Richard had prepared and included in the write up of the Little Bustard in the very first Birding World. Paul suggested to Richard that, “He knew someone who would like that,” and it has been on my walls ever since. So, I’ve included an image of this too!

Richard Millington’s drawing of the Little Bustard both as used in the write up in the very first Birding World and as framed and displayed on my walls. 

 

 Elegant Tern – Cemlyn Lagoons National Nature Reserve, Anglesey, 19^th July 2021

Whilst we were on the Isle of May between Saturday the 3rd June and Saturday the 10th June 2017, news of an Elegant Tern on Hayling Island in Hampshire was relayed by Rare Bird Alert between the 7th and 9th June. When it relocated to Pagham Harbour in West Sussex on the day we left the Isle of May, Ken Shaw and I slowly began to get interested, especially when it was reported from there day after day.

So it was that we travelled south on Monday the 19th June 2017. Having seen Mandarin flying over the M6 in Lancashire and Red Kite, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Jay over the A34(T), we arrived in Church Norton at around 14:00 and devoted the next five hours or so to standing around in the hot sun not seeing the Elegant Tern (although seeing Little Gull, Mediterranean Gull and Little Tern and hearing Cetti’s Warbler and Cuckoo). We then decided to cut our losses and retreated to nearby Bognor Regis, where we stayed overnight in a bed and breakfast, to enable us to repeat our vigil the following day.

We were on site for 09:00 and remained until 13:30. We managed a similar supporting cast but by c.13:30 we were a tad demoralised and decided to make something of our trip by taking in the Surrey Heaths.... . We managed some specialist species, including Woodlark, Dartford Warbler, Tree Pipit and Silver-studded Blue, and generally enjoyed our change of scene. Until, that is, it emerged that the Elegant Tern had returned to Pagham Harbour in our absence..... . We did the same, but by the time we got there, it was notable only by its absence, despite another c.18:00 – 20:30 stint... . 

We returned to the bed and breakfast in Bognor Regis, and prepared for a proper vigil – no skulking off early – the next day, our third. We were there by c.08:30 and again forlornly scanned the island and the harbour for the next seven hours. It then emerged that the Elegant Tern had been relocated to Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour...... .

Although we gleaned that it was possible to get a ferry from Sandbanks to Brownsea Island, it was too late to do so that afternoon / evening. We opted to drive west to somewhere strategic - within striking distance, and find some accommodation for our third night in the deep south. This we did at a good pub in Ringwood, where we were able to console ourselves with images on social media of the object of our quest on Brownsea Island taken by a CCTV camera overlooking the Sandwich Tern colony. Surely it would be there in the morning? We were by c.08:30, having taken the ferry from Sandbanks and stumped up whatever it was we were charged to enter the island and yomped to the hides. However, it wasn’t, and it failed to show up, although at one frustrating stage Duncan Walbridge – sitting alongside Ken and I – briefly and distantly saw it over Poole Harbour. We remained for hours, but the tern was inelegant to the last.

Complete nightmare. Major dippage.

As such, I had some serious previous with Thalasseus elegans (despite happy memories of seeing it in Marin County, California).

So, when one ‘stuck’ at Cemlyn Lagoons in July 2021, I was interested, very interested, despite having ‘given up twitching’ (or not!) now I had reached 500 species for the UK...... .

It was first reported on Sunday the 4th July; appropriately for a species largely associated with the western coast of the United States (and Mexico) it turned up on Independence Day. In an instance of some sort of ‘available elegant tern déjà vu’, between Saturday the 3rd July and Saturday the 10th July, I was on the Isle of May as part of a work party attempting to rebuild the Arnott Trap.

Paul Pugh was staying with me at the time, having returned for work reasons from Belgium in the latter part of June. We’d had some great days dragonflying and damselflying at sites in Speyside, sites in the Beinn Eighe and Loch Maree area, and at Flanders Moss. Paul finally departed for Southport on Wednesday the 14th July, and guess what, by 18:48 on Friday the 16th July I was receiving back of the camera images of the Elegant Tern from him...... .

The pressure was now really on. All the more so, as, having been away on the work party for a week, and then dragonflying and damselflying with Paul, and then seeing him off in the next few days, I now had to get on with some serious drafting and preparing of material for the next Isle of May Bird Observatory newsletter. This I commenced to do in the remainder of the week once Paul had departed, and I continued to do so over the course of the weekend. By the Sunday evening I thought I had done as much as I could, and enjoyed an impromptu soiree outside with my ‘neighbours’ Asif and Louise from Lou-Lou’s ice-cream shop and Mark from The Cottage. This was very enjoyable, and involved an Indian carry-out and beer and wine alongside the Forth on a still, warm evening. Late that night, I both sorted out the debris from our eating and drinking, and sort out my belongings for an anticipated two-day trip away.

Perhaps as a result or the eating and drinking, or the warmth, or the anticipation, or a mixture of all three, I had a rubbish night’s sleep, and ended up getting up early to send e-mails about the newsletter to Alan Lauder providing all of the draft articles for his review and outlining what I still needed from him, and to David Steel outlining what I still needed from him. This was before 06:30 and I then returned to bed and achieved some good sleep. As a result, although there was positive news at 07:00, it wasn’t until some while later that I finally emerged and prepared to leave.

I was in the car for 09:30 and journeyed south on the very familiar A720, A702, M74 and M6 route, stopping at the BP petrol station in Biggar to fill-up. I knew it would be late afternoon when I arrived, but I didn’t know what I’d do in terms of stopping somewhere (or not?) after I had seen the bird / on the drive back. I supposed I would end up sleeping in the car. It was too late / not appropriate to contact people such Carol Carrington in Hale, where I could have stayed in normal circumstances, and I kicked myself for not looking out the key I had for Gary Hitchen’s place in Barrowford, as I could have stayed there under any circumstances.

However, as I drove south on the M74 a scheme emerged and so I ‘phoned Dave McAleavy. He answered neither his landline nor his mobile, but he did return my calls soon afterwards. I explained I was twitching the Elegant Tern at Cemlyn Lagoons and asked him whether he wanted picking up. Somewhat to my surprise he was up for it, so we agreed I should update him on my progress as I got closer to Parbold so that he could be ready to leave as soon as I arrived.

I continued south and briefly stopped off at Tebay Services from where I messaged Dave to suggest I would be about an hour. It was 12:19 by then. I waited until I crossed the Ribble and ‘phoned Dave to say I would be 20-25 minutes. I arrived at High Moor, Parbold at 13:20 and fantastically, Dave was ready to go.

Seeing him for the first time in ages meant that the rest of the M6, M56, A494, A55 journey went very quickly; in what seemed like no time we were approaching Holyhead and turning off towards Cemlyn Bay. The route didn’t come back to me just like that, and Dave used his Google Maps app. to navigate us there, albeit without his glasses. After some minor overshoot along the lanes, we eventually made it by 16:30.

For the first time on my visits to Cemlyn Lagoons, we inadvertently parked at the car-park at the eastern end of the storm beach. From here, once we had gathered up our belongings (except my pen and notebook!) we attempted to yomp along the beach to the viewpoint overlooking the tern colony island. The walk wasn’t too bad, but we both recollected yomping along Blakeney Point in other times.

On arrival there were just a handful of birders there plus the North Wales Wildlife Trust tern warden. I made some attempt to ask whether it was showing but this floundered and so I decided I wanted to find it for myself.

Armed with the intelligence from Paul’s visit this wasn’t hard, although the bird was partly obscured by the vegetation on the tern island. Broadly, this remained to be the case throughout our stay; the bird was generally showing partially at least in the same sort of area, or sometimes well or sometimes not at all, throughout. When it wasn’t showing it might have disappeared off out to sea to fish but only on one occasion did we actually see it flying around, although on a couple of others, it had returned from such forays as it had a fish with which it tried to entice the local sandvicensis babes, or not (Hint: try catching something half decent!).

So, it was all very leisurely as we watched for the next hour or so. I revelled in the relaxed atmosphere of a stonking new bird on a stunning successful twitch (given what had gone before) and alternately enjoyed watching it, chatting to Lorraine Jones, the very engaging tern warden, and helping arriving hobby birders (all the gear and no idea, I’ve retired so I am going to take up birding types) get on it, offering looks through my ‘scope, COVID-19 or no COVID-19. I was very much in my element.

Disgracefully, I’d omitted to put my notebook and pen in my pockets on getting my gear together at the car, and I was only able to scrounge paper (but no pen) from Lorraine, et al..

As such, any describing and sketching had to be done after the event, but all the same, here goes... .

The bird in question was a largish Thalasseus type tern, perhaps larger than Sandwich but smaller than Royal.

Besides its redunculous bright yellow bill, it had a shaggy-maned black cap which was ‘greying’ – signs it was moulting out of full breeding plumage. Otherwise, the bill was the standout feature – it was very long, slightly drooping and yellow or even orange-yellow. It also had black legs, and dark-centred primaries, which were evident both well resting and when flying. The white rump and tail were not noted (partly as it was only seen in flight briefly on one occasion).

It was clearly a male, as it frequently displayed (involving head-shaking and bill-pointing) and was seen offering fish to random female Sandwich Terns. Lorraine described how there had been three birds at the Sandwich Tern and Mediterranean Gull colony on the Sébastopol Polder Nature Reserve on Noirmoutier Island, situated in the department of Vendée in France. Here two birds had paired up and the other had departed, and seemingly then ended up at Cemlyn Lagoons. All very fortunate for me, as it turned out.

It later emerged that I saw it on exactly the same date as I had seen the Sooty Tern at Cemlyn Lagoons 16 years earlier.

We left by 17:45, and stopped off for food and drink supplies before we reached the A55. Dave then drove back from there to Parbold, where he treated me to an indulgent steak and kidney pudding, chips, mushy peas and gravy supper, washed down with a couple of cans of lager on the decking in the back garden, where I belatedly wrote up some notes.

Although shattered, whilst doing so, as I had earlier in the day, I mused over big questions like, “Why am I still twitching?” Was it because it is there or because it is in me or because I am addicted?

I also contemplated my revised goals now I was past 500. 520 – at one a year for 20 years or two a year for 10 – would seem reasonable. Ideally, but unlikely, I also pondered about getting to within 99 of the all-time British list total, but quickly put this to the back of my mind as the official list seems to grow faster than does mine nowadays.

Maybe, like my intended approach to work options nowadays I will just go for things that interest me rather than worrying too much about everything I am missing. One of the ‘delights’ of being on 500 plus is that there is much less to go for (although, conversely, there is less to go for nowadays!). It’s a nice ‘problem’ to have.

My rubbish ‘context’ image, showing the relevant part of the Cemlyn Lagoons tern colony on the 19^th July 2021.

Elegant Tern with Sandwich Tern, Cemlyn Lagoons, Anglesey, July 2021 (Photographs courtesy of Paul Pugh).

Erm, welcome back.....

Almost exactly 13 years ago, for reasons that escape me, I began this blog.

I only ever made two posts. One, some introductory comments, I've retained, by way of providing some sort of context, although given the time that has elapsed, perhaps I need to reintroduce myself!

The other I have deleted for 'diplomatic' reasons; my life has moved on in SO many ways since then (which is another reason to reintroduce myself!).

Anyway, all these years later I intend blogging again, as I've entirely 're-purposed' the original blog.

Having introduced me as a birder and Burnley FC follower, the very first blog included a statement thus, "Maybe, (stay with me!), just maybe, it will be a happy tale of the achievement of 500 birds seen by yours truly in the UK over the next few years," (and also admitted I am a mere low-lister..... ).

Anyway, suffice to say, I finally achieved my ambition of seeing 500 bird species in the UK with the Northern Mockingbird on the 7th May 2021, although, as ever, the actual total involved is subject to constant revision due to taxonomic changes, etc., but I'm getting ahead of myself.

So what is this 're-purposed' I mention?

Well, ever since the addition of the c.260th species to my UK list (the Little Bustard in the Avon Valley outside Christchurch in Dorset in very early January 1988) I have written up the whole twitch, involving a detailed description of the whole scenario surrounding it, as well as a description of the bird involved. In addition, I have added any photographs I may have taken or obtained (formerly purchased as prints from those rare bird photographers that sold their photos of rarities, and latterly located on the interweb - and appropriately credited of course 😎). I have also included a sketch, often based on scribblings I made at the time.

I had handwritten versions of the same for the first few years, before these evolved to word-processed documents. Each was in a plastic sleeve in two large ring binders.

It was always very much a work in progress; an endless amount of drawings were always on the 'to do' list, for example.

Also, having seen the Masked Shrike in the East Neuk of Fife at the end of October in 2004 with my (at the time) very young daughters, the 'new species account' I prepared soon afterwards was lost when my PC crashed. Having poured my soul into the writing of the same, I was so completely demoralised by this unrecoverable loss that I stopped writing up such accounts altogether for a lot of years, which was partly also as a result of life getting very complicated at this time.

However, there was always at least something recorded in my notebooks, and in the momentous year that was 2016, I prepared a half decent sketch drawing of each of my ticks in the desk diary type notebooks I was using by then, and, as a result, also I started doing the proper write ups again.

Move on a few years to 2019, the (first) year of COVID-19 and serious lockdown, I set myself the challenge of word-processing all of the 'back catalogue' of accounts. This involved typing up all of the original hand-written ones, and converting all of the subsequent word-processed ones into a standardised format which was used for all, AND, by whatever means necessary, (mainly involving using whatever notes I had and doing lots of internet and other research) creating accounts for all of those ticks for which there wasn't one following the Masked Shrike fiasco until whatever it was for which there was one prepared all those years later. 

As such, I now have some 250 separate word-processed accounts, and I'm in the process of slowly illustrating each of these with sketches and photographic images.

One of the prime reasons for having these new species accounts was always so that I can reminisce in my dotage; say to my daughters, "Read me 471, I think you'll find it is Brunnich's Guillemot", and then just drift off into a haze of fond memories.

However, during the process of preparing the write ups, I have sometimes sent drafts to a small number of friends for their feedback.

As, invariably, this has been supportive and positive, I am now proposing to gradually upload some(?) / all(?) such new species accounts to this blog for others to enjoy.

I hope in some sort of way they capture something of what twitching was in the post-Nancy's era, when the rare bird alert services took twitching to, arguably, a newer, wider audience, but before it become an 'easy' 'check what's available, jump in my car, follow the sat-nav directions, see the bird' exercise. Also, I have the feeling that twitching is going to become increasingly outmoded by environmental (and financial!) concerns, so again, I hope the accounts capture what twitching was like (for me at least) before these strictures hit home.

Lastly, the next post will be the very first such 'new species account' to be uploaded. It relates to the Cemlyn Lagoons Elegant Tern I saw just over a year ago. This was my 501st species and as such could be considered to be an appropriate one to start with, but more to the point, it already comprises a totally complete write up, complete with a (in this instance very poor) sketch, and a range of images including my rubbish 'context' one and some stunners from my mate Paul Pugh.
Posting the first such write up provides a lot of added motivation to get on and complete as many others as possible!

Let me know what you think; I can always abandon the idea as necessary, but it feels good to have got to this stage.

Initial bloggings

Errrrrrr..... . Well, here goes, welcome to my first blog-post, if that is the right expression.

Not really sure where this is going, but driven on by my post holiday blues, boredom, and a need to get up to date, I am entering the world of blogging.

Not sure either what future content will be, but I am already experiencing a ghastly feeling that it may well be a sorry tale of rare birds dipped, (technical expression - stop the innuendo now - it means 'missed'), Burnley Premier League games in which another defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory, and other such tales of woe.

But let's be optimistic on this momentous occasion.

Maybe, (stay with me!), just maybe, it will be a happy tale of the achievement of 500 birds seen by yours truly in the UK over the next few years, and my beloved Burnley's incredible successes in the Premier League, culminating in the domination of European football from the small, (pop. just 80,000!), down on its luck ex-mill town in the foothills of the Lancashire Pennines, (okay, I admit, it red wine is involved - probably Claret).

So lets establish those two baselines for future reference.

1. Having been a birdwatcher all my life, and a birder for all of my adult life, and a twitcher until practical sensibilities, (family, company), kicked in, I have amassed a UK / British life list of some 460 species, (sort of depends on who is counting, me updating my lists, etc.). Okay so I am a low-lister in relation to some, but it is my achievement, and I like it, and I have enjoyed fantastic experiences along the way; and,

2. Having been a Burnley fan since I moved there, (complimentary tickets from a First Division footballer neighbour, to sit in a then state-of-the-art stand and watch First Division football was very persuasive for a 10 year old!), I am finally going to witness them in the Premier League for the first time.

Burnley won the old First Division Championship the year I was born, but with the abolition of wage limits, (cheers Jimmy Hill), they could no longer compete with the big city teams, and so in 1975/76 they were relegated into the old Second Division for the second time within a few years. The decline didn't end there, and in 1987, Burnley, one of the 12 founder members of the Football League, had to win the last game of the season, (the notorious / infamous 'Orient game'), to retain their league status in the very first season that teams could be relegated to non-league obscurity, (at the very least). They did, but it was a long, long, long way back.

But now, after a momentous season in both the Championship and the Cup competitions, Burnley are back in the big league for the first time in my adult life!

Okay, this is getting a bit geeky, I'll get my anorak, and see you next time.