British bird-photographers 3. J. B. and S. Bottomley

(Plates 69-76)

B R I A N A N D S H E I L A B O T T O M L E Y , husband and wife, work as a photographic team. They take turns in hides, and in the dark room develop the negatives together before one operates the enlarger while the other makes the prints. Brian was born in 1919 in Halifax, Yorkshire, and on leaving school joined the Army. During the war he served in the Airborne Forces, took part in the D-Day landings and fought at Arnhem and the crossing of the Rhine. When he eventually left the Army in 1950 with the rank of Major, he then became a partner in a tobacco farm in Northern Rhodesia before retiring to England. Sheila, born in 1913 in Purley, Surrey, points out that she is Scottish on both sides. Before the war she used to help the late Catherine Clark with nature photography, but at that time had few aspirations in this field herself. During the war she was commissioned in the A.T.S. (Anti-Aircraft Command). In 1946 she worked for R. M. Lockley in Pembrokeshire and on Skomer.

Both the Bottomleys have had a lifelong interest in birds, but until their marriage in 1955 neither had done any real photography or devel­oped a film or plate. Brian Bottomley's first published photo­graph, of a Snipe Gallinago gallinago with an abnormal bill (Brit. Birds, 50: plate 16), was taken in 1956. In the eight short years since then this partnership has risen to the very forefront of bird-photographers. They are always trying new techniques and remain ruthlessly critical of their results. They have travelled to many parts of Britain from Scotland to East Anglia, but much of their best work has been done around their former home on the borders of Lancashire and Westmor­land and will doubtless continue where they now live in Cornwall. In 1958 and i960 they also visited Denmark and Swedish Lapland with C. C. Doncaster. They were elected to the Zoological Photographic Club in 1959 and in 1961 were awarded the Medal of the Royal Photo­graphic Society.

During the last three years they have concentrated, with no little success, on photographing woodland birds at ' bait. The Magpie Pica pica (plate 72a)—always difficult to photograph—and the Nut­hatch Sitta europaea and Great Spotted Woodpeckers Dendrocopos ??iajor (plates 69 and 76) are examples in this issue and others have appeared in our annual selections of work by British bird-photographers. Their superb Snipe (plate 71) was an attempt to show as much as possible of the bird with the minimum of 'gardening', because thev consider that this is often overdone at nests in long grass and that the resulting exposed eggs look unnatural; in this connection, note also

501

BRITISH BIRDS

the Black-tailed Godwit l^imosa limosa and Curlew Numenius arquata on plate 70. The rest of these photographs must speak for themselves, but we particularly like the Red-necked and Little Grebes Podiceps griseigena and P. ruficollis on plate 73, while the delicate study of a pair of Spotted Flycatchers Musckapa striata (plate 75 a) is quite outstanding.

E.H. and I.J.F.-L

502

P L A T E 6 9. Nuthatch Sitta europaea, Lancashire, autumn 1961 (/. B. andS. Bottomley) (pages 501-502)

P L A T E S 70 and 7 1 . Three long-billed, grass-nesting waders: above, Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa, Denmark, 1958; below, Curlew Numenius arquata, Westmor­land, 1959; right, Snipe Gallinagogallinago, Westmorland, 1961 (/. B. andS. Bottomley)

P L A T E 72A Magpie Pica pica Westmorland, 1965

P L A T E 72B Dipper Cinclus cinclus Lancashire, 1962

{all photographs by J. B. and S. Bottomley)

P L A T E 73A Red-necked Grebe

Podiceps griseigena Denmark , 1958

P L A T E 73B Little Grebe

Podiceps ruficollis Westmorland, 1961

P L A T E S 74 and 75. Three summer-visitors in Westmorland: below, male Pied Flycatcher Muscicapa hypekuca at nest, 1965; right upper, pair of Spotted Flycatchers Mtucicapa striata, 1958; lower, male Wheatcar Oenanthe oenanthe, 1959 (/. B. and S. Bot/omley)

P L A T E 76. Male Great Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos major about to Feed a crimson-crowned fledgling not long out of the nest, Lancashire, 1962 (J. B. and S. Bollomley)