NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

I've never been one for 'having my picture taken'. It's not out of shyness, just an assumption that nobody would really want me in the way and spoiling their photograph. So, there are very few pictures of me in the field. I do know some people who do nothing but pose for the camera, and then post the images all over the place - each to their own, but not for me. I do, however, like taking photographs of wildlife. My family complain that I will happily snap away at a plant or a moth, but steadfastly ignore them. Guilty as charged... A rarity - a picture of me in the field! High Pines, Fraser's Hill, Malaysia, April 1994 It's not that I don't like people, it's just that somebody else always seems to be taking care of the photographic 'people' element in my life. My wife and daughter's have tens of thousands of images stored on the computer and backed-up elsewhere. We have a pile of photographic albums, full of old-fashioned prints. These...

If you were to be asked what you were doing twenty years ago to this very day, most of you wouldn't have a bloody clue. I, on the other hand, not only have a photographic memory (although this ceases to work beyond 1994) but also field notebooks that go back into those glorious days of the slightly grubby 1970s. So, what was I doing on March 27th 1994. Here's a clue: A bit of detective work is needed to identify where, in the world, I was. The dendrologists among you will no doubt have clocked the Dipterocarpaceae and may even be able to point out individual meranti, chengal and keruing trees. Others will look at the forest floor and at once place the rich reddish-brown soil and creeping tree roots as indicative of south-east Asia. And you'd be correct. This is a forest trail at Taman Negara in Malaysia... if you listen carefully, you might just be able to hear the Banded Pitta calling off to the right. And here are my fellow birders of twenty years ago - Janice ...