Ann and I have been involved with birding since the late 1980's, me for somewhat longer. I did the actual pressing of the shutter, whilst Ann, a competent birder in her own right, assisted in many ways, from following subjects to help keep the camera lined up on them, to dealing with queries when we sold rarity photos. In the case of a major twitch it used to be Ann who did most of the driving (and made the sandwiches!). She usually relocated the bird before I did as well! My bit was far easier. Unfortunately, Ann was hospitalised for 3 months with sepsis, and this, among other things, worsened her arthritis so she rarely gets out now, although until quite recently still accompanied me on foreigb trips.
As you will see from the site, we have travelled quite a lot, usually with quality rather than quantity in mind, and this being the case have many photos of lesser known and restricted-range species. Most of our birding is now done abroad, in common with many aged twitchers. I still consider myself a birder with a camera rather than a photographer, but sometimes the results are quite acceptable.
Our photos were often published in Birding magazines, especially Birdwatch & Birding World (no longer published, although as our lists get bigger the amount of twitching gets less. We have had photos published in many books ranging from I-Spy Birds of Prey(!) to Seabirds-a Photographic Guide (Enticott & Tipling).
When not birding, Alan was a Pharmacist, working in Lincolnshire, near the Norfolk border. (surprise, surprise!) For obvious reasons he has a particular interest in travel medication and tropical diseases, often advising fellow birders on medication etc., for the more obscure areas, where the average tourist doesn't venture. He has a particularly extensive personal knowledge of seasickness but hasn't yet been able to find an infallible remedy.
I have retired now from paid work, but we still travel, although Ann's activities have been curtailed, and I often travelled with Mike Sidwell, a good friend from Norfolk, who sadly passed away in 2023. The site was originally set up to sell rarity photos, although we were never in it to make money, we just enjoyed twitching and the camaraderie involved. As time has gone on, I have expanded the site to include a lot of our foreign birding, but also other forms of wildlife. A recent new "gallery" is my quest to photograph every bird on the British List (category A), anywhere in the world. Whilst there are several of them I haven't photgraphed, I have seen all but four, and have plans to see two of those in place, hoping to complete my quest whilst I am still able. I regularly update many of the galleries, with my favourite, waders, being to the fore. I will often just replace a photo if I get a better one, but really the site has become another hobby, hopefully one which will inspire others, or at least provide relief from boredom. I write my own code, and am no expert, which explains the simple format (and occasional error). I have tried to make it responsive, but some older pages I've never re-written the code. Because of the sheer number of photos it is best viewed on as large a screen as possible, but will work on a mobile if you only want to view, say, recent additions or rarities.
It is best viewed in a Microsoft Edge or Firefox browser. It will probably work in all, but I have found that if opening it in Opera, some of the colours are altered (although not of the photos themselves).