I am saddened to announce that Derek passed away earlier today after a lengthy spell in Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen. Since his move to Wales it wasn’t long before we became acquainted with Derek and his wife Beryl. There is much can and will be said about man who achieved an impossible amount in his life, but a moment of light entertainment I will treasure, was the day Derek became incomprehensibility bewildered. Derek had not long caught up with a Laughing Gull found earlier by Julian Friese in the Tywi Valley and had just finished taking a detailed set of notes as Sandra and myself turned up, Derek still having the bird set up nicely in his scope. Fantastic, that was until I pointed out it was a Franklin’s Gull! Imagine the scene as more birders arrived and were treated to an unexpected Franklin’s and not a Laughing Gull. I could tell Derek was upset, but he was adamant there was a Laughing Gull, which he said must have flown off and been replaced by a Franklin’s. But he knew that no one was ever going to believe that. I can remember vividly his immense relief when I called him an hour later to say we’d just relocated the Laughing Gull a little way downstream! A remarkable day and a remarkable man.