A Sad day , not to see those reports from Ian each morning at 6am when Barry had found something on his way home . You all know how much of my life ive spent at the flash and in all that time only met Barry about 5 times when his watch had stopped , id normally arrive at 9am to be told barry left about 2 hours ago , and strangely even though he only lived half a mile away , he would never come back whatever mega you found , he had the same routine since the early 2000s and nothing would interfere with that . He only broke routine once a year , when he would take a taxi to cornwall for his 2 weeks holiday :) We all benefitted from Barrys finds and the flash will seem a lot more empty without him. RIP Barry go join Charlie for a mooch ,you will be sadly missed. :(
It is with real sadness I inform of the passing of long-time Pennington Flash regular, Barry Hulme, following a battle with Cancer.
Barry will be known to many, perhaps mainly via his posts on this forum merely due to the fact that he generally visited the flash so early, many visitors would arrive long after he’d already been and gone. Only possessing a mobile phone though and not really embracing ‘technology’ he’d leave it down to me to post his news for him.
Those who did know Barry personally though might know him as a quiet, very unassuming man; a gentleman. Some may have witnessed his wicked sense of humour and his joyous laugh. Some may have struggled with his broad Leigh accent at times too.
However you knew Barry, or knew of him, he leaves a legacy of great bird finds at the flash and of friendships made there. I will miss watching him trudging across the ruck over to the western end and back during my visible migration watches, his (often really) early morning texts, our many chats not always about birds and his cheerful demeanour.
I leave you with the entry for Barry in the seminal 2009 Manchester Birding article ‘Meet and Greet the Mancy Birders’ which brought him much enjoyment ‘back in the day”.
Barry Hulme- Pennington Flash silent assassin. Unlocks the
door to Horrock's Hide in the morning so early you've not
even gone to bed yet, subsequently finds birds you've no
chance of! Sharp as a Samurai sword and quiet as a mouse,
take your eyes off him and he'll have picked out a biggy
before you've even got your bins up. Frankly, anyone who
gets up that early every day deserves those rewards and at