My advice to anyone interested in birds and nature is to start a wildlife garden. You never know what - or rather, who - will turn up. My patch started just after I moved permanently from London to North Devon in 2007. And the crowning glory of all that resulted was an astonishing and, as it turned out, heart-breaking robin called Larry. Larry became my dearest, closest companion - and the most phenomenal model any photographer could wish for. He was besotted with having his picture taken - about five or six thousand times in his two-and-bit-year life. Larry had his own website. Adoring fans as far the U.S.A. and Australia. And, each year, his own calendar. The one you see here will be the last. On 6 June, 2013, Larry didn’t show, I’m fairly certainly his nest on the hedgebank opposite my front garden was attacked by magpies. I like to think Larry died protecting his wife Lila (she’s with me still) and fledglings. No creature will ever take his place.