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Emma Louise Turner FLS (1866-14 August 1940) was an ornithologist and pioneering bird photographer whose 1911 picture of a nestling Bittern in Norfolk was the first evidence of their return to the United Kingdom as a breeding bird after local extinction since the late 1800s.

She was described as being " …small in stature but very wiry, quite capable with a punt or rowing boat". She took up photography after meeting Richard Kearton.

For 20 years, she lived and worked for part of each year (including some winters) at Hickling Broad in Norfolk, chiefly on a houseboat of her own design, which she named Water Rail after the first photograph she took in the Broads, of a Water Rail. She also had a hut on a small island in the south-east of Hickling Broad, which became known as Turner's Island (52°44′07″N 1°35′10″E / 52.735206°N 1.586171°E / 52.735206; 1.586171).

She became the first "watcher" (warden) on the National Trust's Scolt Head.

Her Bittern picture resulted in her being awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Photographic Society. She was one of the first ten women fellows of the Linnaean Society and the first female honorary member of the British Ornithologists' Union. Though not a graduate, she was also an honorary member of the British Federation of University Women.

Her book, Broadland Birds, was published in 1924 and formed the basis of a radio programme about her life, Emma Turner; a life in the reeds, broadcast by the BBC in 2012, produced by Sarah Blunt and with sound recordings by Chris Watson.

She was also a keen gardener, at her homes in Girton, Cambridgeshire and Cambridge, and kept Terriers, which she trained to flush birds so that she could count them. She lost her sight two years before her death.

Bibliography

• Turner, Emma (1907). The Home Life of Some Marsh Birds. H.F. & G. Witherby, Ltd. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
• Turner, Emma (1924). Broadland Birds. Country Life. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
• Turner, Emma (1928). Birdwatching on Scolt Head. Country Life. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)
• Turner, Emma (1935). Every Garden a Bird Sanctuary. H.F. & G. Witherby, Ltd. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |authormask= ignored (|author-mask= suggested) (help)

References

1. ^ B.B.R. (April 1940). "Miss E. L. Turner". British Birds. 34 (4): 85.
2. ^ "Emma Turner; a life in the reeds". Nature. 2012-01-24. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 2012-01-24. {{cite episode}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |transcripturl= (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |seriesno= ignored (|series-number= suggested) (help)
3. ^ "Emma Turner of Hickling Broad Norfolk". Norfolk History and Past Times. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
4. "A double century for Bitterns". British Birds. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
5. ^ Women in Science - a Biographical Dictionary to 1950. ISBN 1-57607-090-5.
6. ^ H-W, A. (January 1941). "Miss Emma Louise Turner". Ibis. 83 (1): 188–189. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1941.tb00609.x.
7. Turner, Emma (1924). Broadland Birds. Country Life.

External links

• A double century for Bitterns (British Birds) - features Turner's 1911 Bittern photograph.

Template:Persondata

• 1866 births
• 1940 deaths
• British photographers
• Nature photographers
• Fellows of the Linnean Society of London
• People from Norfolk
• People from Cambridge
• British ornithologists