Ian Prestt CBE (1929-1995) For several years, Ian Prestt and I lived about a mile apart. One evening, he telephoned me and told me that a local man had found what he thought were Hobbies Falco subbuteo with flying young. I was sceptical, knowing that there had been breeding Kestrels F. tinnunculus around the place in question, but Ian insisted that we check right away--so we did. We failed to confirm the original report, but we did see a passing Hobby, rather well, which Ian enthused about for days and days afterwards. He was always like that, getting a huge amount of pure pleasure from the birds he saw, whatever they were. Knowing little about rarities, and caring even less, he got as much satisfaction from the Lapwings Vanellus vanellus that we saw as we drove to and from The Lodge as from the Spoonbill Sandpiper Eurynorhynchus pygmeus he encountered during a visit to the Far East. He had a straightforward love of birds and wildlife, dating back to his boyhood at Bootham School, York, which inspired him throughout his life. His enthusiasm rubbed off on many of his more-hardboiled colleagues who, sometimes, forgot that working with and for birds did not mean that they had to stop enjoying them. At Liverpool University, he switched from studying architecture to zoology and, after National Service with the Royal Artillery, joined the Nature Conservancy in 1956. During his early fieldwork in Dorset, he made a special study of Adders Vipera bents, which