Time`s effect on memory has distorted the sequencing - but there were curlews in great flocks, passing over with that familier call. Familiar in memory that is, because that seems only where they reside around here.

Rememder sky larks? That sounds like larking about in a airliner perhaps - but they were birds in the 1950`s of course.Then there were hares laying in shallow depressions in the grass and even a local rabbit warren in a clump of gorse, that probably dated back a few hundred years, given it`s proximity to an aged farm.

There were stickebacks in streams too and in a village called Dirtcar - after a marsh - named by the Vikings when they populated this area.

You could write on, of course, in great detail about the environment of which you were part - but there is little interest.

Ever heard a Skylark sing?