Peter Dunn – Obituary

Peter’s fascination with wildlife emerged at a very young age. Like many boys in the early 1960s, he collected almost everything from the natural world that he could find, whether pond-life, feathers, butterflies or birds’ eggs. Searching for the latter was a particular passion and, one day, aged eight, Peter didn’t go home after school, but instead went ‘egging’ with some older boys. They collected along the River Swale, in Yorkshire, finding nests of Yellowhammer and Linnet. Peter’s school cap stuffed full (and feeling very pleased with himself), he was on his way home when he was suddenly confronted by a huge policeman – his parents had reported him missing! Once home, he was given a terrible telling-off, though his parents seemed angrier about the egg-collecting than about his disappearance!

However, Peter’s father felt guilty, as it had been he who had previously bought his eager son ‘The Observer’s Book of Birds’ Eggs’. The policeman suggested that Peter be given the book on the birds themselves instead, and he never looked back. He soon had keen birdwatching friends, and his hobby gradually morphed into a lifelong obsession. He always treasured those two books, and always felt guilty about that youthful egging!

After spending his early years in Yorkshire, Peter’s family moved to Reading in Berkshire. While there his interest in wildlife, and especially birds, flourished; he was active in the local ornithological group, and was a regular visitor to many birding locations in the Thames Valley. The Dunn family moved back to Yorkshire in 1970, and settled just outside York where Peter made many friends amongst other teenage birders. He attended Nunthorpe Grammar School where he met lifelong friend Ian Nicholson – whom much later Peter introduced to tour leading – and was an active member of York Ornithological Club. Most weekends he was to be found out birding in various places in the York area, which he reached initially by bicycle, and later on his Lambretta scooter. 

Peter left school in 1972 and found work first at the John Smith’s brewery in Tadcaster before joining the police force a little later. It was around this time that he met Kath, to whom he became engaged, and they were married in 1976. It often happens that a romantic relationship can put a stop to, or at least curtail, a keen interest such as birdwatching, but this was certainly not the case with Peter and Kath. His passion continued, with long weekends being spent at Spurn Bird Observatory, including many a memorable evening in the Crown and Anchor.

Peter had various roles with the North Yorkshire Police, including eight years in Scenes of Crime (now known as CSI), and several attachments to drugs, traffic and task forces, before ending up at Filey near Scarborough. Whilst stationed at Filey as a town Sergeant, he was able to combine his love of wildlife with traditional seaside policing. He took on responsibility for managing wildlife crime and related matters when he became the Divisional Wildlife Liaison Officer, a voluntary role on top of normal policing duties. Not only was Peter able to influence bird crime investigation from the Cleveland border to the north to the East Yorkshire border in the south, he now found himself the divisional expert in all wildlife matters, from hare coursing to badger baiting, as well as bird persecution. Friend and colleague, Alan Miller, was the Force Wildlife Liaison Officer and he remembers pleasant meetings with Peter in the hide at Filey Dams where serious discussions took place, but with one eye out of the hide window to see what was about. Eventually Alan moved on, and Peter was delighted to take on the role of Force Wildlife Liaison Officer which gave him a much wider remit, including liaising with NGOs and sitting on the PAW (Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime) publicity committee.

Having moved to Scarborough, Peter’s birding focus transferred to Filey and he became a founder-member of the Filey Brigg Ornithological Group (FBOG) in 1976. He served in various roles, including Ringing Officer, Secretary, Recorder and, most recently, Chairman, and was a leading light in the successful application for Filey to become an accredited Bird Observatory in January 1999.

One of Peter’s main interests was in bird migration, and it was probably inevitable that he would become a licensed ringer, and later a qualified ringing trainer. Many of the ringers now operating at Filey, and in other parts of Yorkshire, owe him a great deal, having been trained by him, either as their formal trainer or during visits to Filey from elsewhere. The annual ‘Ringing Week’ which he established in the 1980s, attracted visiting ringers from many parts of the country and this has now developed into the Ringing and Migration Festival, held jointly with the neighbouring Flamborough Bird Observatory. Peter had a huge ability to engage with the younger visitors to the ringing station and he took great pleasure in patiently showing them close views of birds in the hand and entertaining them with stories of how little the birds weighed and how far they had travelled. He was extremely knowledgeable about ringing, migration and birds and he readily shared this with many a visitor. Peter had an excellent record of attending every Ringing Week since they first started; he said it was the highlight of the ringing year and that he would not miss one for anything. That all changed in October 2019 when he was tempted by an offer from Naturetrek to lead a tour to Brazil. Peter had seen over 300 bird species at Filey, so the chance of missing a new one during the ringing week was very slim indeed, and the opportunity of seeing Jaguar in the Pantanal was too good to miss. One particular species, his ambition Filey bird, had never been recorded at Filey. We would love to have seen Peter’s face when he received a WhatsApp message in Brazil on 15th October – “Red-flanked Bluetail, trapped in Top Scrub – shame you are in Brazil!” Typically, the Filey birders never let him forget what he had missed, but, of course, Peter always took this in good spirit.

Shortly after returning from his last Naturetrek tour to Baja California in March, Peter was admitted to hospital with what was thought to be sciatica or a slipped disc. Very sadly, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in the form of a tumour in his lower spine and two other places. If that was not bad enough, whilst in hospital he contracted Covid-19 and became extremely ill very quickly. Peter’s wish was to return home but sadly this was not possible and after a very short stay of less than a day in a hospice in his home town of Scarborough, Peter passed away peacefully in the early morning of 15th May.

In correspondence with his wife Kath and the Filey Bird Observatory Group, we have set up a fund in Peter’s memory – The Peter Dunn Filey Bird Observatory Heligoland Trap Memorial Fund. If you would like to donate, please click here.

Peter Dunn
1955 – 2020
Fondly remembered by all who knew him.