 Alan
Richards was born in
Coventry, England and remembers the bombing of the City during the Second World War.
He attended Bablake School in Coventry, and "hated every minute of it,"
except for his last year, when he "blossomed into a passable cricketer" (at
least in his own estimation).
Alan "endured" two years' conscription
in the Royal Signals, most of which was spent in Germany where he played rugby for his
regiment and did "reasonably well" in cross country running.
As well as keeping an eye on the Russian threat
during his conscription, he ran the Squadron Officer so efficiently that he and his
comrades spent most of the final six months of his service doing word games with the
Sergeant Major.
Alan's boyhood interest in birds developed over
the years into a passion which has stayed with him to this day - 50 years later.
During some of that time (nearly 20 years), he was
Secretary of the West Midland Bird Club, Britain's largest provincial bird club.
Later he became its Chairman, which post he held for 10 years until 1999. He is now
one of its Vice Presidents.
Alan's professional life from 1953 until 1974 was
spent in industrial advertising culminating as Publicity and Publications Manager with a
farming cooperative.
In 1974 his first bird book (British Birds:
A Field Guide) was published when he decided to devote all his time to
building up the Aquila Wildlife Images Library - which he still runs to this day (and is
now one of the major sources of pictures of wildlife).
Alan is the author of: The Birdwatchers
A-Z (David & Charles, 1980), Waterside Birds (A&C Black, 1981), Seabirds
(A&C Black, 1982), Townbirds (A&C Black, 1983), Woodland Birds
(A&C Black, 1985), Birds of the Birdline (Dragons World, 1988), Seabirds
of the Northern Hemisphere (Dragons World, 1990), Birds of Prey (Todtri USA,
1992), Pocket Book of Seabirds (Parkgate Books, 1998) and Pocket Book of
Shorebirds (Parkgate Books, 1998).
Alan is a co-author of Atlas of Breeding Birds
of the West Midlands (Collins, 1970).
Other publishing ventures include: The
Midland Birdwatcher (a quarterly magazine), Better Birding (a quarterly
promotional magazine), The Wildlife Photographer (a quarterly magazine).
Radio and TV credits: Co-hosted a radio
prgramme, The Countryside, for "a number of years." Has been
involved with "a number of TV programmes" and has appeared on "numerous
occasions" related to topical bird stories.
One of his major involvements of recent years has
been as organizer of the successful Birdwatchers Summer Fair and Wildlife Photo Fair (now
in its sixth year). |
Barbara Bilgre has a Bachelor’s Degree in Marine Science and
Psychobiology from the University of Miami and a Master’s Degree in Animal Behavior
from San Diego State University.
