I took early retirement from work June 2011. I have numerous hobbies but birds and wildlife generally have always interested me. Now have time to enjoy. Mainly a Yorkshire birder but have visited Norfolk.
I have birded all over Europe, in the U.S.A. and Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Belize, Mexico, Dominican Republic, The Gambia, Cape Verde, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Tanzania and most recently Grand Cayman. I have run The Gloster Birder website since August 2000, which has grown into a monster from humble beginnings, and could easily be a full-time job.
I was born in Hampshire but most of my formative birding years were spent in Sussex, including many fruitless hours staring at the sea off Worthing. Plenty of birding done whilst otherwise studying for a degree at Bristol University. Thereafter I spent 18 months in Israel (Didric Cuckoo plus a few hundred thousand migrating raptors), and a few years back in the UK (Sussex, Bedfordshire and Berkshire), before moving to India where I spent 17 years doing a variety of things including being a full-time Dad, part-time developer of BUBO Listing, running BirdTrack for the BTO, running my own ecommerce business, working for Nature Conservation India to promote citizen science and eBird, and then running tours through Bubo Birding. Covid brought big changes unfortunately, and I'm now back in the UK working for Natural England on improving access to species data. Outside of work, I've developed Pan-species Listing and always look forward to my next birding tour to India!
Most wanted species Breeding plumaged Caspian Plover
Birder when I was very young and then stopped doing it. Started again in my twenties but other things got in the way. Only really being doing this semi-seriously since 2010 and the emphasis is still on the word 'semi' here! Interested in anyone wanting to join up for a bit of birding around the West Midlands or further occasionally as petrol prices are killing me!
I am a young naturalist & twitcher from Lancashire. My main interest is birds, along with mammals, reptiles, lepidoptera and odonata.
Most wanted species Moth: Hummingbird Hawkmoth
Butterfly: Clouded Yellow
Odonata: Scarlet Darter
Bird: Little Auk
Mammal: Hedgehog
Reptile: Smooth Snake
I try.
Will always be ahead of LWM.
Birder, moth-er and wannabe botanist. Keen to increase my pan-species lists, especially mammals and fish.
Most wanted species Oleander Hawk-moth
Began birding 2009. Don't get out much :-)
Group account for pan-species listing, used for base site lists
Birder for 38 years from 1975 to 2013, becoming a Pan Species Lister from 2013 till 2022.
From 11, birdwatching was local woods & gravel pits save for trips to the Outer Hebrides 1983, Tiree 1984 & Gibraltar Point 1985. I started twitching in summer 1987 at the end of my first year of University & on passing my driving test in January 1988, my horizons broadened. I made my first twitch to Scotland that year & first visited & twitched Shetland and Scilly in 1990 & Ireland in 1995. My main list is now a British Isles list comprising the United Kingdom, Ireland & the Isle of Man & there are a limited number of species that I have not chased in Britain that I have seen in Ireland or the Isle of Man. I now reside in Clevedon with a local patch list over 200. My obsessions are beginning to broaden to other "easy" wildlife such as macro moths & will hopefully broaden further. I also now keep a WP List but not yet added the few additional species for a World List.
I'm not an avid UK lister, although happy to see new species should I be in the area. Very keen on keeping my county list ticking over though and my local patch at Wellington Gravel Pits. The Scottish Highlands is probably my favourite birding area.
My birdwatching began in c1985 (aged 8) until c1992 (aged 15) and included a 12-year hiatus until recommencing in around 2004 (aged 27).
To create BUBO lists I have only been able to be 100% certain of species seen since 2014, which is when I began uploading sightings data to Bird-Track. Prior to 2014 I kept no permanent records.
There are species that I have seen between ’85-92 and from 2004 up to 2014 and where possible and confident to do so I have added them to the list with as much information as I can recall. If I cannot be sure I have seen a certain species or sighting details are sketchy, then they have been omitted from the list until seen again with 100% reliability.
I have created BUBO lists for some sites that are important to me. Mainly sites/reserves that I have birded most often due to locality or others sites that I like very much.
My local patch sites are RSPB Fairburn Ings and Swillington Ings (RSPB St. Aidan's) and lists have also been created for RSPB Blacktoft Sand (visited regular since '85), RSPB Frampton Marsh (fave site) and Spurn Point.
All lists are of visual sightings.
Wildlife-spotter from Sheffield getting back into the wildlife bug in 2024. Particularly fond of moths these days.
Coleoptera Recorder for East and West Sussex.
Enjoy seeking out birds in UK, Europe and Western Pal.
Also interested in Mammals (esp Bats), Moths, & Butterflies.
Relatively late arrival to birding in the late 90s, now more constrained by parental responsibility - but still manage the odd new bird. Have also managed to see all UK breeding butterfly species plus a few rarities, including (self-found) Long-tailed Blue on the Isles of Scilly in 2006.
This listing for Beacon Hill includes records/photographs from David Harris, Heather Ball, Peter Varnham and volunteers who work the butterfly transect.
Member of Swillington Ings Bird Group - avid patch birder.
Been birding all my life, but got a bit more serious about it in the mid 80's.
Missed a load of good birds over the years due to health problems, but I'm not really bothered by it. Nice to see new birds and travel round the country, and as long as I have a bit of fun while doing it I'm happy.
I am fortunate to be currently working as a freelance ecologist and conservationist. Like many others on here, my hobbies tend to be an extension of my work. I think most of my records are birds, macroinverts and moth trapping. Big advocate of the Record app. I am currently working on collecting and pressing plants for my wee notebook herbariums to build on my botanical knowledge.
Most wanted species My new target is I'd like to see every UK willow species
I will add a profile in the near future.
Focusing purely on my patch which is a maximum of 10 mile radius of home in Melbourne, S Derbyshire
Zoology student that steals my mates' mums' binoculars
Mostly local birding, try to maintain a year list - time permitting. As long as UK life list is gradually increasing am more than happy
19 from stoke - on- trent
birding since 2003
travels alot but not twitching much but sometimes ;)
Lifetime birder, now looking at other taxa (e.g. solitary bees during lockdown) and putting them into some sort of order, starting with a garden list that atm is 27 years old......wip.
Cumbria based ecologist with a particular passion for moths, bees, bryophytes, beetles and botany.
