aPalling Birding

Ok. Born in Derbyshire, lovely childhood but no birds, fewer jobs and too many loony mates eventually saw me escape - ultimately to east Norfolk via brief and not-so-brief periods in several places including Greece, Indonesia and Norwich. I'm a teacher for money (the holidays dontchooknow!) but live for birds, music and playing football. After falling in love with east Norfolk over the last two to three years I recently took the plunge and moved to the lunatic asylum that is Sea aPalling with my partner, the goregous Holly, and the almost as gorgeous greyhound, Ben.

The lovely Holly - she keeps me on the straight and narrow! Most of the time.

My fantastic greyhound Ben. There's no gentler animal on Earth. 

My early birding days were spent as a child firstly stealing eggs and then watching birdless reservoirs in Derbyshire or wandering the moors. After leaving school I spent a few years twitching before deciding to get a proper education and a job with birds. University and then work with RSPB and others followed but it didn't allow the reckless rock-n-roll lifestyle I'd become accustomed to, so it was overseas as a TEFL teacher for me;firstly Greece, and then Jakarta, Indonesia for a couple of years - better birds, weather, food and drink.

Upon my return to the U.K. I decided on becoming a dynamic life-changing teacher but ended up in working in Great Yarmouth. Still, I've been lucky enough to have spent a fair amount of time birding overseas in such lovely places as Tibet, Indonesia, Australia, China, Peru, Costa Rica, blah blah blah, and developed a particular passion for the oriental region, leading to me becoming a part of the fantastic Oriental Bird Club and helping to produce some of their amazing publications over a five year period.

Benny likes a pint after a hard day's work catching Bitterns...

Life in east Norfolk is spectacularly good; it's less than a minute to the sea and there's great potential for some rares, a few really keen patch birders and some of the best birding in the UK, year-round. I'm overjoyed at finally being in a place where I can see quality birds on a walk from my front door and the potential for the unexpected is always there - this first year has been stunning with finds of Radde's, Greenish, many Y-b Warblers including one in the garden, Sabs, Barred, RB Shrike and three Great Greys etc and some stunning sea watching... waking up to the sound of pinkfeet flying over the house is a dream come true. You might see me bombing around the area on my bike, perhaps with Ben the greyhound in tow. Say Hello.

Heroes: Strummer, Clough and my father http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/68/a4420568.shtml

Zeroes: People without passion