Ian Pinkerton.

I have just received a phone call to give me some personally devastating news that Ian (Pinky) Pinkerton has died suddenly.

Ian met and made many friends at Conder Green where he became the all conquering hero when it came to monitoring the ups and downs in the lives of the Common Terns which have bred on Conder Pool these past six years since July 2014, then got hooked on the Avocets which later followed suit to finally and successfully breed there too, with four young set to fledge imminently. Ian had watched these birds from hatching, and told me he was hoping they wouldn't fledge whilst he paid a visit to his home in Wigan, until he returned to Conder Green this very day Saturday 10 August....but this wasn't to be.

I will miss Ian very much, he was the man who always kept telling me, he was a golfer until the day he met me, and having seen and kept in touch with birds on Birds2blog, he never touched a golf club ever again, but rather spent hours on end keeping tabs on the birds he came to love on Conder Pool.

It's all your fault....Ian repeatedly spoke to me over the time he knew me, these words will ring in my ears for evermore....Conder Pool will never be the same again.

Thoughts and prayers for his dear wife Yvonne and their family. 

This is the last of hundreds of photographs Ian Pinkerton sent to me over the years, of the Avocets and Common Terns he monitored diligently....Clik the pik it really is good.