Derek Ratcliffe Author & Editor

Derek Ratcliffe grew up in Carlisle and began watching Peregrines in the Lakeland fells while still a schoolboy. He later explored the Southern Uplands, Snowdonia and the Highlands, and developed a particular enthusiasm for the wildlife of the mountains and moorlands. In 1956 he joined the staff of the Nature Conservancy in Scotland, and a few years later was invited to organise the British Trust for Ornithology's national Peregrine Enquiry, which documented the species' population 'crash' of 1956-63. This led to his participation in the Monks Wood studies of the effects of agricultural pesticides on birds of prey, which eventually helped to bring about the phasing out of damaging organochlorine compounds, and allowed the subsequent recovery of affected species, including the Peregrine. Although in 1970 he became a scientific administrator - 'in order to have a bigger say in conservation policy' - Derek managed to maintain his involvement with Peregrines, and organised two further national surveys of the bird, in 1971 and 1981. He retired as Chief Scientist of the Nature Conservancy Council in 1989, and is now able to devote his time to field work and writing about wildlife and its conservation, free of the shackles of bureaucracy.