Bob Tallack stands out amongst the active members of the Gower Ornithological Society because of the very professional nature of his birdwatching. He is the epitome of the gifted and dedicated amateur, who in the course of an otherwise active business and family life is making his own special and valuable contribution to the knowledge of the status of birds in West Glamorgan’. This was written in 1985 and Bob has continued to make a similarly valuable contribution since those days. He instigated systematic counts of Rookeries, heronries, Sand Martin colonies and co-ordinates a breeding census of Mute Swan all of which are conducted annually by a team of fellow ornithologists. The area covered is the old West Glamorgan, now the City and County of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council.

Bob’s first article on the status of Rooks appeared in Gower Birds in 1973, followed by reports on House Martin and the Mute Swan census in 1983. He wrote an article on the breeding status of Ringed Plover in 1986 and on heronries in 2002. He then updated his article on Rooks in 2012. He was on the editorial panel of the 1992 Atlas of Breeding Birds in West Glamorgan. In addition, Bob coordinated the field work for the last BTO Atlas, doing much of the fieldwork himself as well as encouraging others to take part.

Bob has contributed to the production of the annual bird report “Gower Birds” continuously since 1972 as a section writer and as Editor for the last ten years, coordinating the input from section writers and ensuring the annual publication continues to a very high and reliable standard throughout that time.

Bob was a committee member of Gower Ornithological Society for over 50 years and was Chair for ten years till his retirement in 2019. He was then honoured with Honorary membership of GOS and has served since then as the society’s President.