I started birding in 1963 when I joined the Ornithological Society as I started at Manchester University (England). I met Alison there, we married in 1972 and headed to Montreal, Canada in 1974. We managed to continue birding amidst career and family demands, primarily in Canada and the US, often as part of the family vacation!

In 2008, our first birding trip to Central America was a two-week birding tour in Costa Rica. We were hooked, and in 2011 I got my first DSLR for a two-week birding trip to Colombia, I also retired in 2011, which removed a time constraint, and we celebrated our 40th anniversary with a six-week birding trip to Southern Africa, for which I upgraded to a 500 mm Sigma lens. Alison retired in 2014, and we now spend a large part of the winter birding in the tropics.