As well as watching Ospreys one of the joys of working up at the Dodd Viewpoint and Whinlatter is meeting people. With up to 90,000 visitors per annum conversations and coincidences abound. Old friends, not contacted since school days turn up, new friendships are forged and mutual interests are pursued - other rare Birds of Prey are naturally often discussed, from which fascinating subject there are numerous opportunities for links and digressions! This story from one of our Volunteers has a nice twist.

‘I have a MERLIN Bicycle which I have owned from new - 1st Feb 1963. I had never met another cyclist who owned a Merlin until summer 2006 when a visitor to Dodd expressed an interest in my bike. He then told me he owned three! One from new, the other two in a sad state that required restoration. Two weeks later I had a letter from him with photographs of his Merlins and an invitation to visit him if ever I got up to Aberdeen. In May this year I took a bird-watching trip to Shetland, catching the ferry from Aberdeen, so I called to see him. As well as 3 Merlins he has three ‘Hitchins’, two ‘Flying Scots’ and an ‘Andy Dean’ all of which are quite rare.

The Shetland Birds were pretty good too!'