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St. Kilda |
For a fortnight in June, 1929, Frank and Betty Lowe were on Hirta, intent on recording bird life, and especially the St Kilda sub-species of the wren. The Lowes, born and bred in Bolton, were newly-wed.
For Frank, the St Kildan trip was a highpoint of his life. He and his brother ran a small firm of textile suppliers, but Frank’s main interest in life was natural history. He had become a popular lecturer using lantern slides; he had been encouraged by none other than Richard Kearton, pioneer of wildlife photography. They corresponded and had met each other on several occasions.
For Frank, voyaging to St Kilda had been inspired by a book compiled by the famous Kearton brothers, Richard and Cherry, who landed here with their cameras in 1897. Frank did not write a book about his experiences, but he often told of his experiences when giving lectures and his accounts found their way into the newspaper reports of the 1930s.
Betty was the first woman naturalist to make the hazardous trip to St Kilda.
Frank was quoted as saying: ‘To take some of the pictures, my wife will be lowered down steep cliffs by a rope, and will have to hang there motionless for indefinite periods
Numbers of red kites in Scotland are rising slowly - have you ever seen one of these birds flying wild in Scotland?
