BRIGG PEOPLE ASKED TO TAKE PART IN BIRDWATCH 2021

People living in Brigg and nearby communities can take part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch over the weekend January 29 to 31 - codenamed Bird Watch 2021.
Locals are being asked to count the birds they observe visiting gardens or local parks and green spaces.
The aim of the world's largest bird survey - established more than 40 years ago - is collect data to see how species are doing.
Instructions and what details can be viewed here...
Results can be submitted online - details here...
Brigg being surrounded by countryside and having the River Ancholme flowing through, our town has a greater number of species than some people might imagine.
We recall in the 1960s having our attention drawn one winter to a colourful waxwing in the grounds of Glanford Secondary School on Wrawby Road. Some years ago, birdwatchers flocked to Bigby Road, near its junction with Albert Street, to view many waxwings which had flown in from Scandinavia.
Brigg Blog has reported sparrowhawks, bullfinches, wrens and robins visiting people's gardens, and we recall a rare albino blackbird causing a flap when it was sited on the St Helen's housing estate.
But the RSPB is interested in sightings of ALL birds from January 29 to 31 - even mundane sparrows,starlings and pigeons.
Fittingly, if you are a Twitter user, there's a chance to tweet your 'bird spots' using the hashtag #BigGardenBirdWatch
Of a more exotic nature, we revealed in August 2014 'Three Little Dickie Birds Sitting on the Wall'.
Ken Harrison took a picture of a tropical species not previously seen in the centre of Brigg - blue & gold macaws "being taken on various sorties about Brigg." Earlier, they had been seen outside Steels on the corner of Market Place and Springs Parade, and then perching on a wall near the Tesco store.
Ken explained: "The macaws are unable to perspire and in this warm weather need to be sprayed with a fine water spray - this itself cools them down, but the spraying makes them flap their wings and the flapping cools them down further."
Thirty-plus years ago we recall that the Scunthorpe Telegraph's editor instructed us to include 'Feed the Birds' panels on various pages at this time of year and particularly when snow was deep and crisp and even on gardens, to encourage readers to help our feathered friends.
However, Jack Whitfield, a previous Telegraph editor, revealed in one of his books that, during the Second World War, Brigg reporter Edward Dodd was refused permission by the official censor when he tried to include 'Feed the Birds' on pages of the Scunthorpe Star, as this might have been information of use to the enemy.
But surely the German army's weather forecasters were aware of deep snow settling on the runways of North Lincolnshire's many airfields, grounding flights.
Jack and Ted were both educated at Brigg Grammar School between the wars. Jack was the Scunthorpe Telegraph's news editor in the early 1940s, while Ted was called up for groundcrew duties as a leading aircraftsman rigger at RAF Elsham where heavy bombers were based.
However, he later gained higher rank with the Brigg-based Lincolnshire Times as its news editor, supervising the editorial staff and being officer commanding operations south of the Humber (head office being the Hull Daily Mail where the weekly paper was printed).

PICTURED: Ken Harrison images of a buzzard over Brigg and the colourful macaws.