Ian Wallace (ornithologist)
British ornithologist (1933–2021)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donald Ian Mackenzie Wallace (14 December 1933 – 4 November 2021), known as Ian Wallace, D.I.M. Wallace,[1][2][3] or by his initials DIMW,[4] was a British birder, author and artist.
14 December 1933
- Ian Wallace
- D.I.M. Wallace
- DIMW
D. Ian M. Wallace | |
|---|---|
| Born | Donald Ian Mackenzie Wallace 14 December 1933 Norfolk, England |
| Died | 4 November 2021 (aged 87) |
| Other names |
|
| Known for | Concise edition (BWPC) of The Birds of the Western Palearctic |
Early life
Wallace was born on 14 December 1933 in Norfolk, England, to Scottish parents. He was educated at Loretto School, near Edinburgh.[5] Early in the 1950s, he undertook National Service with the King's African Rifles in Kenya.[5]
Career
Wallace was the second chairman of the British Birds Rarities Committee[6] and was a contributing author to The Birds of the Western Palearctic.
In 1963, Wallace was among a party of birders,[7] led by Guy Mountfort[8] and including Julian Huxley,[8] George Shannon[7] and, James Ferguson-Lees,[7] that made the first ornithological expedition to Azraq in Jordan.[7] The expedition's recommendations eventually led to the creation of the Azraq Wetland Reserve and other protected areas.[9] Papers from the expedition are in the United Kingdom's National Archives.[10] He identified at least four species previously unknown in Nigeria.[11]
He was the Honorary Life President of Flamborough Ornithological Group (since 2000), and of Flamborough Bird Observatory.[12]
Wallace appeared as a guest on BBC Radio 4's Saving Species, discussing his October 1960 observations of the visible migration of birds over London, on their 50th anniversary.[13]
He was described as "one of the very top ornithologists in the UK",[14] "one of the great names of British bird-watching",[15] by the BBC as "a pioneer of ornithology [in the United Kingdom]",[13] and by Mark Cocker as both "one of the godfathers of modern birding"[4] and "the grand old man of birds".[16]
Wallace lived in Staffordshire. He died on 4 November 2021, at the age of 87.[17][18][5] A five-page obituary was published in British Birds.[19]
Bibliography
- Discover Birds, Deutsch (1979), ISBN 0-233-97100-9
- Birdwatching In The Seventies, Macmillan (1981), ISBN 0-333-30026-2
- Watching birds (illustrated by Alan Harris, Ian Jackson), Usborne (1982), ISBN 0-86020-655-6
- Birds of Prey of Britain and Europe (paintings by Ian Willis), Oxford University Press (1983). ISBN 0-19-217729-X
- Beguiled by Birds, Christopher Helm (2004), ISBN 0-7136-6535-1 (publishers' page)
Contributions
- A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe by Roger Peterson, Guy Mountfort, P.A.D. Hollom. Collins, 1965
- new edition of 1954 work; revised and enlarged in collaboration with I.J. Ferguson-Lees and Wallace
- 1971 impression: ISBN 0-00-212020-8
- 2004 edition: ISBN 978-0-00-719234-2
As illustrator
- Wood, J. Duncan (2003). Horace Alexander: 1889 to 1989: Birds and Binoculars. York: William Sessions Limited. ISBN 1-85072-289-7.
Significant articles
- Snipe and Grouse: English Bird Names in Birding World, Vol. 6 No. 4 pp. 164–5 ISSN 0969-6024