Stewart Taylor

As a young electrician in an Accrington factory, Stewart Taylor used to gaze out the windows wishing he was outside. His childhood interest in natural history was fostered by his parents, who were keen ramblers and cyclists, and by the Accrington Natural History and Antiquarian Society. Living on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales provided a rich hinterland while the coast was not too far away either. He remembers the arrival of bearded tits at Leighton Moss, and seeing his first glow-worms.

Having just read Gavin Maxwell’s ‘Ring of Bright Water’ he and his wife Janet spent an October honeymoon camping in Glenelg discovering Camusfearna for themselves. Stewart was even more determined to forge a career in conservation so left his job to gain experience as a volunteer while Janet continued earning. He wardened the ospreys in Speyside (a taste of things to come), volunteered at Leighton Moss and in Wales, before ending up guarding golden eagles and peregrines in the Lake District. Sadly the eagles failed that year so Stewart found himself out of a job. Burning their bridges once and for all, he and Janet took off for a holiday on the Isle in Rum National Nature Reserve.

Camping near the pier in Rum, he helped load a boat with the belongings of a disenchanted islander and realised that there might now be a vacancy. The Chief Warden took him on as an estate worker for three months, until he was finally sent to Edinburgh for interview. Stewart was given the job full-timee, a house on the island and a first step into conservation.

The Rum estate foreman frowned upon Stewart carrying binoculars all the time, so he kept himself sane by checking the island’s golden eagle eyries and undertaking Common Bird Censuses at weekends, running a moth trap and looking for plants. He added several new moths to the island list, including some dubious ones first recorded by Heslop Harrisson a few decades earlier. Stewart also tried verifying some of discredited Professor’s rare plants but without success. He did find pyramidal bugle though, and lesser twayblade which were rarities in Rum. Because of his specialist knowledge he was also asked to help out with the sea eagle reintroduction.