A book, a wartime story and a bird observatory

A POST on Twitter sent me rushing to the bookcase at the weekend to check on a volume I haven’t looked at for at least a couple of years.

Countryside Alliance CEO Tim Bonner posted about his uncle, Ian Pitman, a prisoner of war captured in France in 1940, who spent much of his wartime incarceration thinking and writing about the British wildlife he loved.

Those thoughts sustained him through his days as a PoW and resulted in the book, subsequently illustrated by Sir Peter Scott, entitled And Clouds Flying, which I picked up – with no knowledge of Pitman’s background – at a second hand booksale at Saltram House years ago. Pitman was a naturalist and a wildfowler, as was Scott for many years. They saw no contradiction in following those two pastimes.

Tim was writing about his uncle Ian because after the war Ian and fellow PoW George Waterston bought a former observation post on Fair Isle in the Shetlands to create the Fair Isle Bird Observatory.

It is now in danger of permanent closure following a fire and the trust which runs it has launched an appeal to raise money for repairs. It’s a fair way from the Westcountry, but it carries out important work. To donate to the appeal go to fairislebirdobs.co.uk/donations