Great character

IT’S great to see Bill Oddie back writing his column. He’s an icon for anyone interested in watching birds in Britain and Ireland. The amount of literature and television programmes he has contributed to the subject is immense. The audience he captured over the years is countless. The enthusiasm he brought infectious. One of the leading birders in Ireland, Frank King, who enjoyed Bill’s books and TV shows, delighted in his notoriety. They met once in Akeragh Lough in north Kerry and Frank said Bill was thrilled that he was unknown in the area at the time. Back then televisions in the area only had one Irish channel. That anonymity soon vanished once British channels became accessible in Ireland. Frank sadly passed away in 2021 at the age of 94. A huge loss to Irish birding. Tom Lynch, via email