Eric Hardy died last year (2002) he was 90 years of age with
him went the last link with another great north - western naturalist and
perhaps the most famous of them all, non other than T.A. Coward, Hardy actually
knew Coward and also Oldham, with whom Coward wrote "The Birds of
Cheshire" and "The Verterbrate Fauna of Cheshire and Liverpool
Bay" Talking to Hardy I was surprised to hear that he had such a low
opinion of the two of them, but then, listening to his Countryside programme on
Radio Merseyside it soon became apparent that he thought much the same of most
of his contemporaries, especially those who at some stage in their career had
actually shot birds!
He came along to the KOS one evening in the 1970's and gave us an evening's
entertainment that is still remembered by those lucky enough to be there! He
brought only a handful of slides, and these were black & white, but managed
to enthrall us for two hours, it could have been longer, much longer! but at
10pm with the Civic Hall caretaker stood at the back of the room, keys in hand,
we had to ask Eric to finish - just as he was launching a verbal attack on the
Royal Family, his favourite target!
He often reviewed publications sent to him and gave his verdict during the
Countryside programme - I sent him a copy of our own Knutsford Ornithological
Society Bird Report for 1976, and he was quite complimentary about it. This
tended to be the case, he was scathing about any professional publications that
weren't up to scratch, but with amateur efforts he was much more relaxed and I
never recall him causing embarrassment to any local bird report editors.
At the time Radio Merseyside was broadcast only on the medium wave band so,
here in Knutsford we were just at the edge of its coverage, and in the evening
when the programme went out there was lots of fading on the signal, with
occasional interference from Continental stations that made reception
difficult. I remember recording the programme when our report was reviewed and
recently tried to find it amongst a collection of old audio tapes rescued from
the cellar when we moved house. It wasn't to be found but I did find one tape
containing a couple of Hardy's programmes from 1977. I've selected from this
tape a 5' section when Eric talks of a day on the Lancashire Mosses, alone for
most of the time, surrounded by Pink-footed Geese, but with a gentle dig at the
end about the newly opened Martin Mere Reserve. This is part of a typical Eric
Hardy Countryside programme, it's quite a big file in
RealAudio - only seconds for you
Broadbanders but 5' or so for us still on dialup - I think you'll find it well
worth the wait!
Click here to
download.
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