Humphrey Sitters (born 1944)

Dave Jenks, Society Archivist

Humphrey Sitters joined the Society in 1959. He became Hon. Secretary in 1968, a post he held until 1980.

He was elected President of the society in 1981, serving to 1986. He had two terms of three years on Council. 1987 – 1989 and 1992 – 1994.

He edited and organised the Atlas of the Breeding Birds in Devon, published by the DBWPS in 1974.

The contributions of Humphrey Sitters to ornithology, made over many years and in many guises, brought just reward in 1979 when he was awarded the Tucker Medal of the BTO, the highest accolade which can be bestowed from within ornithological ranks. It was first awarded in 1954, and only two Devon ornithologists have so far received it, the other being Geoffrey Gush, in 1989.

In 1987 he succeeded James Ferguson-Lees as Chairman of the BTO Atlas Working Group. His long involvement with the BTO included serving as Regional Representative for 33 years. He was influenced by Jeremy Greenwood, Director of the BTO, to take the MSc ecology course at Aberdeen and thus began his transition from a Solicitor, his life profession, to that of a scientist. His fields of interest include the study of shorebirds which he began in earnest in 1973 with Roger Swinfen, with whom he had a joint cannon-netting licence. It was in the late 1970s when he began to catch oystercatchers on the Exe Estuary which would lead eventually to his successful submission for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Hilary Term 2000 at Wolfson College and Edward Grey Institute, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford.

He later privately published his thesis: The role of night-feeding in shorebirds in an estuarine environment with specific reference to mussel-feeding oystercatchers. A scientific treatise of some 300 pages.