Good Bye My Friend

Richard doing what he loves

On Monday I said goodbye to an outstanding bird photographer and friend Richard Roach.  I first met Richard through his photographs on the birding sight Bird Forum where he shared images of some of the bird species he saw on the island.  This culminated in a gallery of over 80 high-quality images of common to rare  birds dating back to 2009, including rarities like Palm Warbler (Setophaga palmarum) at WSR in 2010, Tropical Mockingbird (Mimus gilvus) in St. Philip and a Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) in 2009, all of which I am hoping we can add to the islands historical record on ebird.org.

I then met Richard physically while on an excursion with my family at Long Pond, St. Andrew in 2013, which I came to learn, was one of his favorite birding locations.  At that time his camera of choice was a Pentax K200D with a Sigma 50-500mm, this was before he joined the Canon family with a 5D MKIII with the matching sigma 50-500mm.  This often led to a double prong taunting of the lone nikon user Dr. Webster.

American Redstart @ Turners Hall in 2015 by Richard

We shared many fun times together, birding the highs and lows of the island and if there is one thing we were sure of it was that Richard always got the shot.  Just two examples of this were in January 2015 when we went to Turners Hall Woods (read about it here) in search of an Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla).  We did not find the Ovenbird but we did find an American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla).  In those dark conditions, he was the only one who got an image.  Later that year, in late September, he and I made a visit to Harrison’s Point in St. Lucy, on getting out of our vehicles we saw a Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus savana) sitting on a tree, Richard got that shot in seconds then the bird disappeared and we never saw it again that day. (see here)

Richard Roach Apral 15, 1957 - January 19, 2019

Richard lost his fight with cancer on January 19^th, 2019 while undergoing treatment in the United States. Shortly after his death, he was cremated and on March 11^th a memorial service was held here in Barbados to celebrate his life. The comments and sentiments I heard expressed by the speakers, have added to my fond memories of my birding pal, Canon brother and friend Richard “double R” Roach.  I would like to express my condolences to his family and friends on behalf of my family and the Birds of Barbados family.

Good Bye my friend.