In January, West Cornwall Ringing Group lost one of its founder members, Terry Cooper, after an all-too short battle with cancer. Terry started ringing in 2010 and was there at the inaugural ringing group session at Ponsanooth Sewage Works in 2013 (on the far right). Whilst Terry never mastered the fine art of mist-netting, what he did to make up for that was truly inspiring, turning his creative, practical hands to making traps to use in his St Austell garden: potter traps, spring traps, chardonneret traps,  feeder traps, sparrow traps. Over the years, Terry consistently ringed more birds than anyone else in the group, including several hundred Starling and Goldfinch. Where full-time students at the University of Exeter failed to catch Herring Gulls as part of their research, Terry couldn’t stop catching them, so the students would decamp to St Austell to see how it was done. His garden even featured in more than one ringing conference presentation of novel catching techniques. Terry was also a prolific maker of Barn Owl nestboxes, supporting the early years of the ringing group project installing new boxes across the county, a legacy that will live on for many years. Not only were these produced in quantity, but also quality, with no one yet managing to match that, including myself. On top of all that, Terry ran a long-term ‘Retrapping Adults for Survival’ project, colour-ringing and resighting Jackdaws at the Lost Gardens of Heligan, and was a regular on the Looe Island gull-ringing trips. Above all though, Terry never had a cross word, more an ability to consistently bring a smile to the face of us all on group ringing sessions. For this he’ll very much be missed. Mark Grantham