Joseph Bryan Nelson (1932–2015)
At a Glance
Section titled “At a Glance”| Metadata | Details |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2015-12-23 |
| Journal | Ibis |
| Authors | Christopher M. Perrins |
| Citations | 1 |
Abstract
Section titled “Abstract”Joseph Bryan Nelson was born on 14 March 1932 in Shipley, Yorkshire. Bryan started his career with a training in water treatment, before switching to study Zoology, taking his first degree at St Andrews. His interests were always in animal behaviour and his honours project was on newts. Even when, in September 1959, he headed to Oxford to work on birds for a D.Phil supervised by David Lack, his office contained tanks of newts. His project, funded by the then Nature Conservancy, was to continue with the study made by David Snow of the Blackbirds Turdus merula in the Botanic Garden, but complemented with a comparative study of them in woodland and farmland. However, he ‘found such heavy losses of Blackbirds in Wytham Woods that he could not undertake the comparisons that he had planned’ (Annual Report of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology for 1961). Wary woodland Blackbirds are definitely not well-suited to close observation. Bryan’s start in Oxford coincided with the return to Oxford of the BOU Ascension Island Expedition, including amongst others its leader Bernard Stonehouse and Douglas Dorward, Philip Ashmole and Mike Cullen. Listening to their descriptions of being able to observe large numbers of individuals at close quarters made Bryan realise that this was the sort of behavioural work he wanted to do. With the consent of the Nature Conservancy and David Lack, Bryan switched to Niko Tinbergen’s Animal Behaviour Research Group to start a behavioural study. His choice of the Northern Gannet Morus bassanus was influenced by his earlier experiences with ringing them on Ailsa Craig. The Bass Rock was much more accessible and its owner generously allowed him to live there. His supervisor Mike Cullen, who had earlier worked on the Farne Islands for his doctorate on Black-legged Kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla, also encouraged him in his choice. Bryan had found his life’s work and he never looked back; to ornithologists the words Nelson, Gannet and Bass Rock became synonymous. In 1960, before starting work with the Gannets, Bryan married June Davison, so starting a life-long successful partnership. The publications may be in the name of Nelson, but in truth the work was done by Nelsons plural, with June coping with keeping them alive in inhospitable and demanding surroundings, typing up the notes and even catching many of the birds; Gannets are neither co-operative nor unarmed. One autumn after leaving the Bass with a slash across his face from an enraged Gannet, Bryan went to a behaviour conference in Europe only to be addressed by several people in German; surely this mark on a tall, good-looking blond must be a duelling scar. Although they were to return to the Bass year after year, after he had finished his thesis in 1963 Bryan felt the need to compare the Gannet’s behaviour with that of the other members of the family. This led to some ten years of travelling to far-flung sites to study all the sulids. Of particular note perhaps are the visits to the Galapagos and Christmas Island (Indian Ocean). While on Genovesa (Tower) he expanded his interests to include a study of Magnificent Frigatebirds Fregata magnificens. A chance visit to Espanola (Hood), where the Nelsons were studying Blue-footed Boobies Sula nebouxii and Waved Albatrosses Diomedea irrorata, by Prince Phillip on HMS Britannia led to them being some of the few people to be entertained barefoot on the vessel. His studies on Abbott’s Booby Papasula abbotti at its only breeding site on Christmas Island resulted in him vociferously campaigning for the protection of the jungle in which it nested. It was in no small measure due to his advocacy that the Australian Government created the National Park there. Bryan joined the Zoology Department in Aberdeen in 1969. Despite being a lively and popular lecturer, Bryan’s over-riding interest was his research, which often took him away from the Department. More surprisingly, he only ever had two graduate students who studied seabirds; Sarah Wanless (see Ibis 157: 669-670) studied the Gannet and Barry Reville studied Frigatebirds. He did however, greatly enthuse and encourage others in their work on seabirds (see the obituary by Tony Diamond in Seabird 28). Bryan retired from the Department in 1982, to devote more of his time to writing, research and conservation and moved from Aberdeenshire to Dumfries and Galloway. In the same year he was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He had an important role in setting up the Scottish Seabird Centre at North Berwick and in 2006 was awarded an MBE for services to seabirds. During the course of his career he published many scientific papers, but the year 1978 saw the first evidence of his prolific pen in terms of books, not one book but two: a popular account The Gannet (Poyser) and a 1012-page monster The Sulidae (OUP). These were followed by a series of books in which he showed himself skilled in presenting both detailed behavioural studies and clear accounts for the general reader: Seabirds (Hamlyn 1980), Living with Seabirds (Edinburgh UP 1989), a much updated second edition of the Poyser work, The Atlantic Gannet (Fenix Books 2002), Pelicans, Cormorants and their Relatives: The Pelecaniformes (OUP 2005); in the last as the title suggests, he covered the whole order). He forged a close relationship with the artist John Busby who illustrated all his works. Busby predeceased Bryan by just a month and their last book together On the Rocks (Langford Press) appeared in 2013. Bryan died on 29 June 2015 at his home in Kirkcudbright. His wife June survives him, together with their twin children Becky and Simon.