The ‘Great Fall’ of 1965 was caused by harsh conditions forcing migrating species to land on their way to Africa

My birding mentor, the late Derek Moore, was also a keen cricketer. But one autumn day in 1965 he was unable to concentrate while fielding because many hundreds of songbirds were landing around him on the pitch at Lowestoft.

The arrival of hundreds of thousands of birds along the Suffolk coast that day became known as the “Great Fall”, and it was caused by a weather system bringing cloud, winds and heavy rain.