Robin Prytherch died in 2021 and we misplaced a stalwart of British and Bristol ornithology. As I grew up in Bristol as a teenage birder Robin Prytherch was a number one gentle within the Bristol Ornithological Membership, he had designed its brand on the membership’s founding in 1966 and the topic was a Pied-billed Grebe which Robin himself had discovered, a brand new chicken for the UK, at Blagdon Lake in 1963. His day job was within the BBC Pure Historical past Unit in Whiteladies Highway.
My first radio interview was on the newly launched BBC Radio Bristol with a few schoolmates with Robin asking us questions on our pastime of birdwatching. He was very light with us as 12 or 13 12 months olds and we thought he was a really sort, good previous man – I realise now that he will need to have been 31 on the time!
This quick guide collects collectively 26 Christmas playing cards, all Buzzard-themed with illustrations of the Buzzards in his examine space of the Gordano Valley simply southwest of Bristol – it’s the world you cross by means of on the M4 south of the River Avon. These Christmas playing cards contained data on the person Buzzards which have been illustrated. Robin’s examine documented an enhance from 19 territories in 1988 to 120 in 2020 – maybe the very best density of this species anyplace in its vast worldwide vary.
The examine was a terrific achievement of dedication and skilful remark, the findings have been vital and attention-grabbing, his drawings have been in a recognisable type and confirmed the vast variation in plumage between birds.
Robin was on the board of the journal British Birds for a few years, for one thing over three a long time, and each Chicken Honest I’d search him out for a chat about birds, Bristol and Buzzards.
I broke my pretty agency behavior of claiming ‘no’ to requests for endorsements for guide jackets (I write opinions – I don’t have to see my title and 5 phrases of mine on someone else’s guide) for this guide. It is a charming guide of collected writings about Buzzards by an enthralling man.
The duvet? I can’t see that there’s something improper with that. I’d give it 8/10.
Robin Prytherch, A Life with Buzzards is compiled and edited by Lyndon Roberts and printed by Bristol Books.
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