Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Jim Enticott - author, guide and passionate seabird enthusiast

I was sorry to learn from Trevor Hardaker of the passing of seabird authority Jim Enticott, a familiar name to many from his superb "Photographic Handbook of the Seabirds of the World" (1998 New Holland) coathored with photographer David Tipling. I had the good fortune to meet Jim in his adopted home of Cape Town, South Africa, when a group of us joined him for a lunch after returning from a tempestuous voyage to the pack-ice. His frank comments about the successes and failures of fishery protection efforts in the Southern Ocean, something he was passionately involved in, have always remained with me. Long-time acquaintances Trevor Hardacker and Dick Newell have already paid tribute to Jim in posts to Seabird-News, and I suspect there will be other many other tributes in the coming days and weeks.

1 comment:

keith cockayne said...

I hope that this is the appropriate place to make some comments about Jim, although it's not really about ornithology!
I went to school with Jim & knew him as a footballer & athletic competitor to myself at Elizabeth College, Guernsey (from where Jim came).Even in those years he was a mad keen ornithologist & contributed many learned articles about birds to the Societe Guerniaise (together with his great friend, Mick Fitchet) in his early teens. Nice to know that this early enthusiasm was not lost & gave Jim his purpose in life. Later, he was a flatmate in Wandsworth, London during his time as a student at the College of St. Mark & St. John, Chelsea.
These were troublesome times for Jim, but through it all his love for birds continued.
I lost contact with Jim after that, only to be informed by another old friend of Jim's, John Videlo, that he was, by now, an acknowledged authority on sea birds & living in South Africa.
How appropriate !.
I had hoped to perhaps meet up with Jim again in South Africa but, alas, that is now impossible.
It is a great tragedy that Jim died so young. To his family I leave my condolences & to Jim I say, goodbye mate & I will always remember chasing around after you (& eventually ahead of you!) in the road races, cross countries, mile & half mile races at Elizabeth College.
Goodbye Jim,

Keith Cockayne
Jersey