As our 50th anniversary celebrations continue, check out some of the memories our members have shared with us about RSPB NI over the past five decades - and add yours too!
It was about 1987 and I was about 12 years old and just getting interested in birds. By chance I bumped into a local Young Ornithologists’ Club (YOC) group at Scrabo Tower.
I walked over and asked could I join the group. A kind man named Jimmy Whitla took me under his wing (no pun intended) from there on in.
I can still remember receiving my little Kestrel Badge (the YOC emblem) and wearing it to school. Soon I was too old for YOC and moved into the Bangor members’ group.
I have many fond memories of driving to the meetings, especially the time we saw a barn owl perched on the roadside.
Colin Bell
I was a member of the USPB and its Council in the first half of the 1960s.
By 1975 I was the NI Regional Office, based in an office in Newtownards, before spending a spell in Wales alongside well-known conservationist Roger Lovegrove.
I then discovered that being a humble field-worker was by far the best job in the business, actually being paid to go out and watch birds, which many office-bound staff would envy.
It's always been a pleasure working for the RSPB. Just about every type of survey has come my way: breeding waders, farmland birds, breeding bird census, seabird counts, birds-of-prey surveys and so on.
Rathlin holds a special place in my experiences. I've been working on various projects there (for a range of organisations) since 1960 and published a book on the island's nature and folklore in 2011. It is good to see how the West Light project has flowered over the decades. This June I hope to bring my two grandchildren from England to see the seabirds. They will be amazed.
Philip Watson
Do you have any memories you’d like to share about your experiences of RSPB NI down the years? We’d love to hear them – get in touch by emailing rspb.nireland@rspb.org.uk