Steve Piotrowski: 1951-2024

An obituary

We have lost our founder. We have lost our dear friend. Our club would simply not exist were it not for Steve Piotrowski and our members are feeling this visceral sense of loss perhaps more keenly than most within the Suffolk birding community. Our grief is of such depth that it cannot be adequately described in mere words.

It is a shuddering, painful blow to so many because Steve, with his boundless energy, his sense of fun, his infectious passion for wildlife and his impressive litany of achievements for birds and birders alike was such a force of nature, and such a force for nature. Steve got things done, and got them done on the grandest of scales, enhancing thousands of people’s lives along the way - as all Waveney Bird Club members can well appreciate.

Firstly, let's look at his achievements. He was a founding member of, and driving force behind, the establishment of Landguard Bird Observatory, a site he loved dearly and where he carried out much of his early ringing. With the late Derek Moore he formed a formidable partnership in the 1980s opposition to the expansion of the Port of Felixstowe. While Derek was the key battle strategist, Steve led the fight in the mud, as it were, by playing a major, inspirational role in the field studies into the way in which wading birds used the Fagbury mudflats that were ultimately to be lost under the concrete of the port expansion. Steve presented data and evidence to the House of Lords as a Parliamentary Agent as the expansion Bill progressed through the corridors of power and his skills and dogged determination were significant factors in the eventual establishment of nearby Trimley Marshes nature reserve as mitigation for Fagbury’s lost wildlife habitat.

Bird ringing was a central pillar of Steve’s love affair with birds. He estimated that he ringed a total of about 100,000 birds. His long-standing support for the British Trust for Ornithology transcended simply ringing, however. He mentored no less than 38 trainees through to full permit standard and tutored in numerous BTO - and Field Studies Council - courses at numerous UK venues. At club level, he instigated our regular and extremely popular ringing sessions and demonstrations at RSPB Minsmere.

He made more than 16,600 observations for the Bird Atlas 2007-2011, submitted more than 148,400 observations to BirdTrack and surveyed a Breeding Birds Survey square at Flixton for 11 years. In fact, in his peak years he was such a prolific ringer, ringing demonstrator and bird surveyor that many of his numerous friends frequently asked when on earth did he sleep.

An achievement of which he was supremely proud was his establishment in 2005 of the highly effective Suffolk Community Barn Owl project, which he led with great organisational skill for many years. The continuing project has provided about 2,000 nest boxes across Suffolk and has involved virtually every parish in the county. It has restored the number of Barn Owls in the county to levels not seen since the 1930s and about 6,000 Barn Owls have been ringed in the process, contributing enormously to our knowledge of the species and its conservation requirements.

There seems to be hardly any aspect of Suffolk’s modern ornithology in which Steve was not in some way involved. He worked closely for many years with Suffolk Wildlife Trust and advised many farmers and landowners on nature conservation under the trust banner. He was a loyal supporter of the Suffolk Ornithologists’ Group - now the Suffolk Bird Group - serving it as a council member, chairman and President, ultimately being given the accolade of Honorary Vice-President. He was a long-time member and former chairman of the Suffolk Ornithological Records Committee and somehow also found time to edit the highly acclaimed Suffolk Bird Report from 1986 to 1992.

A great love of butterflies and a deep knowledge of their lives led Steve and his friend Howard Mendel to write The Butterflies of Suffolk, published in 1986, and in 1990 Steve teamed up with Derek Moore and Malcolm Bowling to produce the Suffolk Ornithologists’ Group’s Easy Birdwatching guide to help people with mobility issues access birding sites. Not satisfied even with such a prolific output, Steve diligently went about writing the acclaimed 2003-published county avifauna The Birds of Suffolk, an astonishing achievement given the volume of work that was involved.

Following his retirement from a long career as an engineer with Anglian Water, Steve typically refused to opt for the quiet life. In addition to forming and leading our club with such warmth, drive and determination to help so many of us, he formed a highly successful ecological consultancy and bird tours company with which he extended his already extraordinary ‘reach’ to touch even more people’s lives.

When Steve’s remarkable achievements are considered it is extraordinary that he actually found any time for general birding. But somehow he did. And he did so with infectious enthusiasm and boundless skill. Indeed, he either found or was ‘in on’ the finding of at least four ‘firsts’ for Suffolk - which he always referred to as his ‘gold medal birds’. These were Blyth’s Reed Warbler at Fagbury Cliffs in September 1993, Arctic Warbler, also at Fagbury Cliffs in September 1993, Pied Wheatear at Fagbury in 1994 and Cliff Swallow at Minsmere in November 2016. An enviable number of other finds of scarce and rare birds was also a matter of deep pride for him, as was his extraordinary ‘Suffolk list’ which neared, but unfortunately never quite topped, 400.

Well travelled, he revealed late in life that his global ‘list’ stood at ‘about 5,000 species’. 

 It is perhaps in the final two tangible examples of Steve’s warmth, generosity and compassion that we can most readily appreciate the monumental legacy he leaves behind: the Access for All boardwalk at RSPB Minsmere and the Swift Tower at his beloved Eel’s Foot pub at Eastbridge.

Both these projects relied heavily on Steve’s astute organisational talents, his dogged determination to see projects through and his unfailing commitment to both nature and nature-lovers. And, sure enough, despite a few bumps along the way, both projects have been successfully completed.

The way in which Steve confronted his long-term illness and faced his inevitable fate during his palliative care in his final few months was quite extraordinary. Characteristically brave, forthright, and an example to us all. He is survived by his wife Kathy, who has been such a wonderful and indispensable supporter of all our club activities, and his three sons and three grandchildren. To all his family, sincere condolences are sent from our club and the entire birding community.

Our club has lost its founder and guiding light. We've lost a cherished friend. We have lost a great ambassador for wildlife. Nature is the poorer for his passing.

John Grant