My friend Michael Wilson, who has died aged 79, was a linguist who used his skills to enable British ornithologists to access works unavailable in English.
Mike and I grew up in Somerset villages separated by the Mendip Hills. Our mutual passion for birds absorbed our time and energy in our teenage years. He excelled at identifying bird calls as he walked the Somerset levels. If he heard an unfamiliar call or song he would doggedly wait, listen, search and commit it to memory.
