John Leonard Frederick Parslow (1935–2015) was an English ornithologist and author. Parslow was born on 10 July 1935 in London, and, after wartime evacuation to

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, was educated at Chingford Grammar School. He undertook

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

RAF Bawdsey Royal Air Force Bawdsey or more simply RAF Bawdsey is a former Royal Air Force station situated on the eastern coast in Suffolk, England. Also known as Bawdsey Research Station (BRS), the first Chain Home radar station was built there, characte ...

, as a radar operator, from which he was demobbed in 1952. After work in the Bird Room of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, he joined the

Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology The Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology (EGI), at Oxford University in England, is an academic body that conducts research in ornithology and the general field of evolutionary ecology and conservation biology, with an emphasis on understa ...

in 1959, as assistant to

David Lack David Lambert Lack FRS (16 July 1910 – 12 March 1973) was a British evolutionary biologist who made contributions to ornithology, ecology, and ethology. His 1947 book, ''Darwin's Finches'', on the finches of the Galapagos Islands was a landm ...

. he moved to the

Nature Conservancy Council The Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) was a United Kingdom government agency responsible for designating and managing National Nature Reserves and other nature conservation areas in Great Britain between 1973 and 1991 (it did not cover Northern ...

Monks Wood Experimental Station Monks Wood is a National Nature Reserve north-west of Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, and a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I. A slightly more extensive area of is the Monks Wood and The Odd Quarter biological Site of Special Scientific In ...

in 1967 to work as an

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, investigating the effects of

pesticide Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampri ...

s on the

food chain A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web starting from producer organisms (such as grass or algae which produce their own food via photosynthesis) and ending at an apex predator species (like grizzly bears or killer whales), det ...

of birds. He was the

RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

's Director of Conservation and Reserves from 1975 to 1987. Parslow did pioneering work on the detection of bird migration using radar. He was also involved in the creation of a

bird observatory A bird observatory is a centre for the study of bird migration and bird populations. They are usually focused on local birds, but may also include interest in far-flung areas. Most bird observatories are small operations with a limited staff, many ...

St. Agnes Agnes of Rome () is a virgin martyr, venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, Oriental Orthodox Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as the Anglican Communion and Lutheran Churches. St. Agnes is one of several virgin martyrs comm ...

on the Isles of Scilly, which operated from 1957 to 1967. Parslow was the author of several books, a number of papers on bird migration, and a series of articles for '' British Birds''. He died at home on 23 October 2015, and was buried at the Arbory Trust Woodland Burial Ground in Barton, Cambridgeshire. He was married twice, to Rosemary, with whom he had a son and two daughters, and to Mariko, who survived him.

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parslow, John 1935 births 2015 deaths Place of death missing English ornithologists Royal Society for the Protection of Birds people English nature writers Scientists from London Royal Air Force airmen Edward Grey Institute people