Ronald Mathias Lockley was a Welsh ornithologist and naturalist.
16 Facts About Ronald Lockley
2.
Ronald Lockley wrote over fifty books on natural history, including a major study of shearwaters, and many articles.
3.
Ronald Lockley is perhaps best known for his book The Private Life of the Rabbit.
4.
Ronald Lockley began to study migratory birds from 1928, establishing the first British bird observatory in 1933, and carrying out extensive pioneering research on breeding Manx shearwaters, Atlantic puffins and European storm-petrels.
5.
Ronald Lockley was encouraged to record the exact incubation and fledging period of the Manx shearwater by Harry Witherby, the then editor of British Birds.
6.
Ronald Lockley provided the initial catalyst for the entire British Bird Observatory movement which, following the wartime interruption, reached its zenith in the fifties.
7.
Ronald Lockley described his research in several books, including Dream Island, Island Days and I Know an Island.
8.
Ronald Lockley's notable scientific monograph Shearwaters is a result of a twelve years' study.
9.
Ronald Lockley founded the Pembrokeshire Bird Protection Society which later became the West Wales Field Society.
10.
Ronald Lockley urged the broadening of the activities of the original Society and the extension of its area to include the whole of West Wales and it was at his insistence that the West Wales Field Society was incorporated as the West Wales Naturalists' Trust.
11.
Ronald Lockley continued farming on the mainland when Skokholm was used by the military during the Second World War.
12.
Ronald Lockley played a key part in the preliminary survey of the natural history of Skomer Island in 1946, re-establishing Skokholm as a bird observatory and establishing the Council for the Promotion of Field Studies in Dale Fort.
13.
Ronald Lockley played a leading role in setting up the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in 1952, and in mapping out the coastal footpath around the county.
14.
Ronald Lockley was awarded an Honorary MSc by the University of Wales in 1977, in recognition of his distinction as a naturalist.
15.
Ronald Lockley's ashes were scattered from the boat Dale Princess, in the waters just off Skokholm Island in 2000.
16.
Ronald Lockley was a prolific writer of articles, many of them for Countryman magazine in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.