Norfolk in Autumn

Born in Norfolk, John has been birdwatching in the county for almost 40 years. He is currently the county liaison with the British Birds Rare Breeding Birds Panel, and has been involved in the production of the Norfolk Bird & Mammal Report for over 25 years. More recently John has worked in wildlife conservation for over 15 years filling various roles with RSPB, Natural England and Norfolk Wildlife Trust. John has also travelled quite extensively to over 20 countries, many of which were visited on birdwatching or wildlife trips. His experience gained working within Norfolk on breeding shorebird protection along the North Norfolk coast from Scot Head Island to Stiffkey Binks for Natural England (including several years working on the Holkham Estate NNR), on monitoring CAP agri-environment schemes and barn owl projects with RSPB, and operating wildlife watertrails on boats at Hickling Broad NNR and at Ranworth Broad nature reserves for Norfolk Wildlife Trust means he has acquired a broad knowledge of the fauna and flora of the county. John also has his own environmental consultancy and has been working on a long-term bird monitoring scheme (15 years to date) in operation on a lowland organic mixed farm in North-west Norfolk. His interests extend to all forms of natural history but John also has an extensive understanding of the past history of Norfolk and is particularly well-versed in the areas of Broadland, North and North-west Norfolk.

Born and raised in Oxford, Mike has lived most of his life in East Anglia, with a short stint in West Sussex and a spell in the USA. He has been a birdwatcher ‘since birth’ (so he says!) and initially took up a career in horticulture, which kick-started an interest in plants. Over time, Mike has evolved into an all-round naturalist with interests in all branches of natural history, working a short time for the British Trust for Ornithology and as an environmental consultant before taking up wildlife tour guiding in 1996. Indeed, he first led walks for local wildlife trusts and bird groups as long ago as 1982 and has continued as a professional guide since the late 1990s, except for six years in the USA, where he worked as Program Director for the famous Cape May Bird Observatory in New Jersey.

Now settled back on the Norfolk coast, he lives with his wife, who is also a professional birdwatching guide. He has served as a committee member on the Suffolk Birds Records Committee, edited various natural history newsletters and bird reports and recently authored two identification guides on the flora of Breckland. Most recently, he has taken on a role as Assistant Editor for British Birds magazine and serves as the Norfolk tutor for the national ‘Identiplant’ training scheme. Somehow, he also manages to find time to maintain two identification websites on the flora of East Anglia and the wildlife of Cape May County, New Jersey!