Thursday 19 June 2014

Another tragic loss - STEPHEN LAMBERT

It is with much regret to announce yet another tragic loss to birding today - that of STEPHEN LAMBERT, who died peacefully on Wednesday morning at Bristol Royal Hospital. Stephen had been battling the impacts of a severe stroke suffered two years ago but had sadly given up after being diagnosed with neck lymphona more recently. He died with a BBA British List of 449.
 
Stephen was father to Robert Lambert, a keen birder himself and a lecturer at Nottingham University. I had known the pair, and of course Rob's mother Joan, for a very long time and had shared many wonderful moments with the family on the Isles of Scilly in October. Stephen had always been highly supportive of me and had always given me great encouragement, even when I was at my lowest and being attacked from all sides. It was one of the great father and son birding relationships, equal to that of Ron and Simon King, Peter and Jacob Everitt, Geoff and Alan Clewes, Jeff and Chris Hazell, Bob and Alan Henry, Bill and Antony Brydges and other memorable birding family pairings, and he will be sorely missed.
 
I am particularly heartened and touched by the fact that over the last three weeks of his life in hospital, Stephen had clutched his paper copy of his UK400 Club Life List and had taken great relief and excitement in reliving many of the great birds he had been lucky enough to see, especially some of those special birds on Scilly, such as the Short-toed Snake Eagle, White's Thrush and Blue Rock Thrush. Even as recent as 2011, he had added Scarlet Tanager and Northern Waterthrush from that archipelago. His last new bird had been the Western Sandpiper at Cley, just two weeks before the stroke, while the male Desert Wheatear at Severn Beach last November was one of his final outings in the field.
 
Stephen revelled in the comradery and fellowship that survived and prospered on Scilly throughout the 90's and thoroughly enjoyed life to the full with his family prior to when he became immobilised. I will miss you
 

Lee G R Evans