Many years of work from the late bird expert Tom Fletcher has been captured in print.
Tom’s knowledge of birds, especially around the Geelong area, was second to none, and he wrote the chapter about the Bellarine Peninsula for the book Where to see birds in Victoria, edited by Tim Dolby.
Tom compiled an extensive list of birds found on the Bellarine Peninsula, Geelong and Surf Coast. Tom sadly passed away in December 2023, at age 80.
Tom started writing the Birds of the Bellarine Peninsula, Surf Coast and the Geelong Region: A Historical List book in the early 2000s, as he considered the area was exceptional for birds and wanted to highlight all historical records. Unfortunately, Tom’s wife Pauline passed away in the early 2000s, which temporarily put the project on hold.
Tom carried out extensive research to accumulate information about historical and current records, including reading through all the Geelong Bird Reports issued by the Geelong Field Naturalists Club, old copies of the Emu journal, and searching through his own extensive archives from having grown up in the region.
He also asked other naturalists such as Trevor Pescott, Marilyn Hewish, and Fred TH Smith to contribute their archives to the project.
After Tom passed away, his son Glenn and daughter-in-law Linda presented Voice Nature Watch columnist Jen Carr with four boxes of Tom’s bird records. Some of these records date from around 70 years ago.
Jen Carr and Barry Lingham worked with Tom until his death in refining the bird list and turning it into book form.
Birds of the Bellarine Peninsula, Surf Coast and the Geelong Region: A Historical List is for sale at Bookgrove Ocean Grove.
