Known to us all as a birder first and foremost, Jonathan was a keen and accomplished sportsman in his early years: opening bat for Llanrhian Cricket Club, county level badminton player, and single figure handicap golfer at St David's Golf Club.
Always keen on the outdoors, initially with gun and rod, as were most of his contemporaries in north Pembrokeshire. He gradually became less and less keen on shooting game birds, abandoned his gun, and began to spend more time watching them. He still enjoyed fishing for European (sea) Bass throughout his life.
At first Jonathan’s birding was confined to St David's and its immediate environs, of which he had a knowledge second to none. A favourite tale from these early days was going with the late Sean White, of Thousand Islands Expeditions fame, to South Bishop in September 1992 for a “rare bird”. See image below from the 1992 Pembrokeshire Bird Report for Jonathan’s account of this clearly exciting afternoon.
Gradually his interest spread to the rest of the county and by the time of his passing his county list had just reached the 300 mark, a number only a handful have ever reached. By this time the (in)famous St David's Birders had formed: Jonathan, Byron Davies, Geoff Morris and Rod Hadfield, later joined by Lyndon Lomax and Owen Roberts, with Stuart Devonald in an honorary capacity as he lived far away from St David's: in distant Broad Haven no less!
Together they visited many of the UK hotspots including North Norfolk, the Cairngorms and south west England, before spreading their wings to visit most famously Israel, where they were guided by none other than Hadoram Shirihai, and Poland with Wildwings. In later years Jonathan signed up for several trips overseas with Owen's St David's based R&R Travels visiting Finland, Estonia, Cyprus, various parts of Spain, eastern Turkey, Morocco, Hungary, Ecuador and, achieving a lifetime ambition, Galapagos. Another much wanted trip to Point Pelee, in Canada, was arranged but Covid intervened.
Not too long after Covid his inherited arthritis began to become troublesome and he decided to retire from the building business he had taken over from his father. Sadly his arthritis became worse and he was never able to take full advantage of his few leisure years. His final new Pembrokeshire bird was last October's Brown Shrike, near his beloved Porth Clais which Owen and Glynis took him to see. Quite poignant, as the first time they had met had been at another rare shrike, a Woodchat that Owen and Glynis (Dave: it was surely Glynis!) had found in the mid-1990s on St David's Head.
Always full of fun despite the poor health of his latter years he will be sorely missed by all who knew him. A very proud Welshman, but most of all a man of Pembrokeshire, a county that other than for holidays, he never left from the day he was born to the day he died. Our thoughts are with his wife Susan and his son Matthew at this difficult time.
(Owen Roberts & Dave Astins)
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| Jonathan in his Llanrhian Cricket Club days (courtesy of Llanrhian CC) |
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| Jonathan & Owen in Porthclais, October 2025 |
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| An afternoon to remember, September 1992 |