Richard
Brooks' involvement with birds has been more by way of a gradual
evolution.
A childhood interest in wildlife remained latent during his educational
years, and on graduating from Nottingham University with an Arts Degree
in 1972, it didn't take him too long to realize that the 'cut and
thrust'
of business life was not really for him!
He struggled manfully for 20 odd years to try and reconcile the demands of a Landscape Gardening business with the increasing lure of wild open spaces and exciting foreign destinations. However, spurred on by attending one of Bryan Bland's excellent birding courses at Cley in 1977, he became more and more attracted to North Norfolk, where he bought a small retreat in 1978, which he came to regard increasingly as his spiritual home.
This coincided, in the early 80's, with a growing desire to capture some of his more memorable bird sightings on film. In spite of many early frustrations (caused mainly by lack of experience, and not having the right equipment for the job) this pursuit eventually came to occupy more and more of his time and resources, and to conflict increasingly with his job. The late 80's saw the upgrading of early Pentax equipment to Nikon AF cameras and Sigma and later Nikon AF lenses. This change justified more foreign trips, and finally the combination of better equipment and light conditions abroad started to pay off, in the form of far more acceptable results. The Balearics, Crete, Rhodes, Corfu, the Canaries, Israel and Holland were all visited before Lesvos came increasingly to dominate his thoughts from '94 onwards, The rest, as they say, is history!
At last he was achieving good enough results to get pictures published in bird magazines, and articles on both Fuerteventura and Lesvos followed in Birdwatch magazine in '94 and Bird Watching in '96. At this time, encouraged by the wonderful photographic opportunities in Lesvos, he was persuaded to update yet again to ever more sophisticated Nikon F5 cameras and faster AFS lenses.
Apart from achieving more action photos and being able to build up his portfolio of slideshows, he had already begun to realize that he now had more invested in his photography than his gardening business! The result was almost inevitable - after the idea of the original Birding In Lesbos was conceived at the Bird Fair in August '94, the first of several extended 6-8 week trips to the island in spring '95 sounded the 'death-knell' of his gardening business! Richard now lives full-time in Norfolk, and hopes that the publication of his books, and the disciplines they have involved him in over an extended period of time might bear fruit, and help him continue to do what he loves best - pursuing the twin challenges of bird photography and writing. To these ends he now has slides lodged with several agencies and magazines and travels to various parts of the UK and occasionally elsewhere in Europe in search of photo opponunities - but Lesvos (which he has now visited 19 times!) still occupies a special place in his affections, as it clearly does on the part of so many who have enthusiastically responded to his requests for records.
More recently Richard has visited Lake Kerkini in Northern Greece (just below the Bulgarian border) and the Evros Delta. He is also in the process of drafting out ideas for a new book (provisionally entitled Owls of Delight) which promises to be lavishly illustrated with a good selection of the many images he has obtained, over the years, of Barn Owls and other species. It is likely to be as much anecdotal as scientific. This promises broad appeal since experience has taught that he is not alone in his fascination with these enigmatic birds. Those interested in receiveing details such as a publishing date and projected price are welcome to contact him.