It is with a heavy heart that we announce the sad news that our friend, valued colleague and leader of the Duck Specialist Group, Richard Hearn, has lost his battle with illness and has sadly passed away.
Rich will be known to many for he has been instrumental not only in the monitoring and research of wildfowl species in the UK and Europe, indeed he has worldwide too. Rich started his career at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) back in 1993, when the Trust hired him to plan an expedition to Argentina to search for Brazilian Merganser, in which he participated from June – October 1993. It was this expedition that sparked Rich’s interest in studying wildfowl and on returning, he then went on to work on non-native Ruddy Ducks (in the UK) and Pink-footed Geese (in the UK and Iceland). In 1995, Rich took on a full-time post as a Ringing Assistant, coordinating WWT’s bird capture and ringing activities, along with working closely with UK bird ringers to increase capture and marking effort.
Rich went on to work on a range of mostly international waterbird conservation projects, including numerous population monitoring and assessment projects and he led the UK’s Goose & Swan Monitoring Programme for several years. Rich also worked on species action planning and recovery for Baer’s Pochard (EAAFP) and Long-tailed Duck (AEWA), avian influenza surveillance, capacity building for waterbird monitoring in the African-Eurasian and East Asian flyways, and other issues such as sustainable hunting and goose-agriculture conflict.
He travelled extensively during his time at WWT including to Iceland to work on Pink-footed Geese and Whooper Swans, to Russia (to ring Bewick’s Swans), Bulgaria (Red-breasted Geese), China (Spoon-billed Sandpipers and Baer’s Pochard), Bangladesh, Kuwait, Dubai and Nigeria (capacity building work), along with attending many meetings of parties and conferences over the years.
From 2019, Rich worked in policy and advocacy, focussing on international issues. This involved closely working with WWT teams to secure changes to policy, strategy and legislation among key international stakeholders, including multilateral environmental agreements such as the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the East-Asian Australasian Flyway Partnership and the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement.
His passion for birds, especially waterbirds and their monitoring, status and conservation was infectious. He was always kind with his time and knowledge and always keen to pass this on to younger scientists. As the Global Chair of the IUCN’s SSC Duck Specialist Group, he provided strong and sustained promotion to the Pan-European Duck Symposia, with a particular support to students and young duck scientists. We all owe him a lot. The waterbird world will be a different place going forwards without Rich Hearn, he leaves a huge hole and will be desperately missed.
Our thoughts are with Rich’s family, friends, colleagues and to all those who have had the pleasure of working with him over the years.
Kane Brides
Duck Specialist Group
