Michael (Mike) Guy Wilson, MA, MBOU (1942–2022) by Euan Dunn.
Mike Wilson died in his 79th year on 9th January 2022 in Bristol. A gifted linguist, fluent in German and Russian, he was a forensic and prolific translator of their ornithological literature. This enabled him to build up an encyclopaedic knowledge which he generously shared with his peers, greatly expanding our biogeographic understanding of the life history of birds. Mike’s most prestigious legacy was his massive contribution to the nine-volume handbook The Birds of the Western Palearctic (‘BWP’, Oxford University Press, 1977–1994) and its successors. Less tangible but equally important, however, Mike’s dedication in reaching out to ornithologists in Russia created an active network, opening up unprecedented channels of information exchange and collaboration, as well as building lifelong friendships. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to ornithology across Europe and his distinguished service to the BOU, Mike was awarded the Janet Kear Union medal in 2019.
Mike was born on 30 December 1942 in Keward, near Wells in rural Somerset. From about 8 years old he was fascinated by birds and soon began a habit of keeping field notebooks which he kept up impeccably throughout life until ill health clipped his wings. On a visit to Slimbridge as a boy, a chance encounter with renowned birdwatcher Bernard King led to Mike being put in touch with John McGeoch, a key figure in the Somerset Ornithological Society, who became Mike’s mentor.
In his teens, Mike regularly explored the Somerset Levels with John who he acknowledged as the greatest single influence on fostering his interest in birds and observational skills.At The Blue School in Wells, Mike was drawn to foreign languages, learned German, and was inspired by his teacher, Jim Hendy, to enrol in German and Russian Studies at Edinburgh University in 1963. The normal 4-year Master of Arts (MA) degree course was extended to 5 years for Mike because he had to start Russian from scratch and, as part of the German course, he spent one year at the Free University in (West) Berlin. At Edinburgh he joined the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club, remaining a lifelong member, explored Aberlady Bay, and visited the Bass Rock in a vain attempt to see the vagrant Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris.
In 1968 he graduated with a First-Class Honours MA in German and Russian, followed by teacher training at Exeter University where he passed with distinction. He then taught German for 3 years at Sherborne School, Dorset, before embarking on a bold new challenge with the British Council to teach English at the Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages in Minsk, Belarus. There, he established valuable contacts with Soviet ornithologists including the arctic bird specialist Vladimir Flint (1924–2004) who became a valued friend and correspondent. After a year in Minsk, Mike asked for a second assignment and was posted on a new adventure 1000 km south-east to Voronezh where he continued to deepen his knowledge of Russian birds. He vividly recalled vast flocks of White-winged Black Terns Chlidonias leucopterus, the spring passage of Greater Spotted Eagles Clanga clanga, Pallid Harrier Circus macrourus and other raptors, and developed a special affection for Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola.Fieldwork for an Englishman behind the Iron Curtain was not without its risks, however. Once, when watching Rose-coloured Starlings Pastor roseus near Voronezh, and having failed to spot a military airfield beyond them, Mike was approached by a police officer on bicycle and apprehended. After a few hours of interrogation and study of Mike’s notebook entries, the officer declared ‘I believe you’ and released Mike without charge.Meanwhile in England, Mike’s exceptional linguistic skills and knowledge of the burgeoning eastern European bird literature had not gone unnoticed by Stanley Cramp, the newly appointed chief editor of The Birds of the Western Palearctic. In 1971, therefore, Mike happily accepted a written invitation from BWP co-editor James Ferguson-Lees to undertake systematic translation for the monumental publishing project which, at the time, no-one foresaw would take 25 years to complete. Stanley arranged for Mike to take with him to Voronezh the first two volumes of the concurrently emerging German Handbuch der Vögel Mitteleuropas (Aula-Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1966–1998) to translate the text on Distribution and Population for the species accounts Stanley himself was compiling for BWP. With his customary diligence and attention to detail, and no remuneration other than stamps, Mike penned his translations (starting with BWP Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks) in meticulous longhand onto 5 × 8 inch index cards supplied by Stanley, posting them when he returned to England from Voronezh. In 1974, Mike acted as official interpreter for Stanley Cramp and Peter Conder (then Director of the RSPB) when they attended the Sixth All-Union Ornithological Conference at Moscow State University.
By the time BWP Volume 1 was published in 1977, Mike was teaching at Hedley Walter School, Brentwood. That year, he joined Stanley, Geoffrey Beven and photographer Derrick England on a field expedition to Tunisia. In 1980, with the formidable Volume 3 (Waders to Gulls) looming, Stanley headhunted Mike to become a full-time, paid member of a small team based in the Alexander Library of the Edward Grey Institute (EGI), Oxford, to research, write and edit BWP content. In addition to his German translation, Mike also increasingly took on translation of Russian literature, at the time little known in the UK, greatly helped by the material sent by his circle of contacts, including the aforementioned Vladimir Flint and Lithuanian ornithologist Algirdas Knistautas (1956–2020). Mike would reciprocate by sending them papers and books otherwise unavailable to them.
For BWP volumes 3–9 between 1980 and 1994, Mike wrote 175 species accounts of Social Pattern and Behaviour, and almost as many of Voice, including the particularly demanding Ruff Philomachus pugnax, Acrocephalus and Phylloscopus warblers, and crossbills (Loxia). He also wrote several descriptions of Movements, Food and Breeding.
In his ‘Conclusions’ to the final ninth volume of BWP, William Wilkinson, chair of West Palearctic Birds Ltd, rightly singled out Mike for special mention: ‘We are particularly fortunate to have had Mike, who not only did the translations from Russian, essential for his own sections, but translated all the Russian literature necessary for the other authors as well; without his expertise, coverage of the literature would have been far less thorough.’ By then, Mike had bestowed his linguistic skills on BWP for almost a quarter of a century but his contribution didn’t end there: when the decision was made to distil the nine volumes into the two-volume The Birds of the Western Palearctic: Concise Edition (Oxford University Press, 1998), Mike was again a key editor, responsible for updating and revising the Distribution and Population sections, including maps. After that he served as an editor of vocalisations for the then cutting-edge CD-ROM version of BWP (OUP, 1998).
Throughout the BWP project, and under the constant stress of chasing near-impossible deadlines, Mike remained professional, loyal and supportive. Helpful to a fault, he was also ever willing to translate German and Russian as a favour for colleagues, EGI students and other academics. The authors of scores of books and scientific papers owe him a debt of gratitude for his input.
While in Oxford, as a highly accomplished birdwatcher and member of the Oxford Ornithological Society, Mike also added significantly to knowledge of the county’s avifauna. On his legendary weekend walks along the Thames from Oxford to Abingdon and back (a 15-mile round trip), he charted the range expansion of Cetti’s Warbler Cettia cetti. His Pied-billed Grebe Podilymbus podiceps and Yellow-browed Warbler Phylloscopus inornatus were, respectively, the first and second records for Oxfordshire.
After the conclusion of BWP and its offshoots, Mike was appointed an honorary Departmental Research Assistant at the Alexander Library where he continued to undertake editorial and translation commissions, including several BirdLife International publications. He was subsequently appointed Book reviews editor of Ibis. In an increasingly busy world with an accelerating ornithological literature, it has become a growing challenge to find willing reviewers but, thanks to Mike’s diligence and perseverance, he fulfilled the role with great distinction for 20 years until ill health intervened. Again, he expanded the BOU membership’s horizons by personally reviewing German and Russian books that may otherwise have been overlooked.
Mike’s friends and colleagues remember and cherish him as a kind, caring, generous and resolute man of rare integrity, laced with a gentle sense of humour. Self-effacing and understated as he was, his scholarly achievements flew under much of the ornithological community’s radar but without him our collective understanding of the eastern extremities of the Western Palearctic would have been decidedly the poorer. It is fitting that an extensive tribute to Mike has been written by Jevgeni Shergalin for the Russian Journal of Ornithology. We concur with Shergalin’s overview that ‘This modest, quiet and intelligent person made a huge contribution to the shared body of information about birds from Germany and the USSR (later Northern Eurasia) to the general treasury of ornithological knowledge of the Western Palearctic.’ In his lifelong dedication to unlock the findings of German and Soviet ornithologists and build bridges with them, Mike Wilson created an enduring legacy which is all the more important in a world increasingly fragmented between east and west.
Courtesy of Ibis: International Journal of Avian Science, 22 March 2022.
Michael Guy WILSON MA, MBOU (1942-2022)
The Blue School, Wells.
University of Edinburgh, 1st Class Hons Ma In German and Russian.
Taught English in Minsk and Voronezh.
Teacher training University of Exeter, passed with distinction.
Teaching practice at Sherborne School, Lent term 1969.
Assistant master (modern languages, German and Russian) at Sherborne School, September 1969-July 1972; coached 3rd XI.
Went with the British Council to teach English at the Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages in Minsk, Belarus.
Taught at Hedley Walter School, Brentwood.
Translated bird literature from German and Russian.
In 1980 joined the Alexander Library of the Edward Grey Institute, Oxford, to research, write and edit The Birds of the Western Palearctic (BWP) volumes 3-9.
In 2019 he was awarded the Janet Kear Union Medal by the British Ornithologists’ Union Council (BOU) in recognition of his distinguished service to ornithology.
Died on 9 January 2022 at Bristol.