BTO Dilys Breese Medal

Last week (16 October 2025), I spent a wonderful evening in London at the British Trust for Ornithology’s Awards evening, held at the Society of Wildlife Artists’ annual “Natural Eye” exhibition at the Mall Galleries. The evening celebrates the fabulous work of painters, sculptors and illustrators from all over Britain and the efforts of ornithologists and enthusiasts in support of birds and the BTO.

The BTO makes up to six awards each year: Medals for communicators, contributions to the Trust’s scientific work and for outstanding commitment to the BTO, and three awards in conjunction with the Marsh Charitable Trust for Ornithology, Local Ornithology and Young Ornithologist.

I was deeply honoured to be awarded the Dilys Breese Medal “for outstanding communication of BTO activities” by the BTO Chair, Professor Zoe Davis. Dily Breese was a former Vice President and Hon. Secretary of the BTO, and a renowned natural history producer. She was born and brought up in Wales, joining the BBC in the mid-1950s and working in its famous Natural History Unit from 1970.
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Below are my words of acceptance, but before that, I’d like to pay tribute to all the winners last week:

• Colin McShane (Belvide Ringers), winner of the Bernard Tucker Medal
• Heather Coats (Gower), winner of the Jubilee Medal
• Dr Rob Thomas (Cardiff), winer of The Marsh Award for Ornithology
• Hampshire Ornithological Society, winner of The Marsh Award for Local Ornithology
• Ramandeep Nijjar (Walsall and Reading University, winner of The Marsh Award for Young Ornithologist)

“I am truly staggered and humbled to receive this Award, especially given the achievements of previous recipients. Getting the email from Juliet [Vickery, the BTO’s Chief Executive] a few weeks ago, while I was out birding on Anglesey, is surely the birding equivalent of a letter from Buckingham Palace.

All I do is bang on about birds, because it's second nature. We all, in some way, share our love of birds. We are surrounded today by the work of amazing artists who use their talents to convey the wonders of nature; I don’t have any such artistic aptitude, but it seems I can do words.

I only met Dilys Breese once, at a BTO Conference at Swanwick in the early 1990s. I was there, working with Steve Dudley then of the BTO, to explore ways that the RSPB could collaborate with the BTO to enable more young people to get involved with the Trust’s surveys and studies.

I remember her as warm, encouraging and happy to chat about our shared love of birds and the hiraeth, as Dilys was also an ex-pat who missed Wales.

I’m very proud to be a member of the BTO, and am especially pleased to see how BTO Youth has developed in recent years, perhaps growing from the seed sown by Steve and me all those years ago. And I’d like to pay tribute to the leadership role that the BTO plays, from Juliet in particular, in encouraging diverse participation from a wider range of people in its work.

So, thank you BTO for this Award. And thank you to the various mentors who have shaped my life in nature conservation, and especially Susanne who puts up with me disappearing to wild places at all hours of the early morning or spending evenings in front of the laptop.

I'll carry on doing my bit, in my own small way, to give back to birds just a fraction of the life they have given me.

Diolch yn fawr iawn.”