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A Birding Mission

On a quest for the meaning of life and the spiritual through the kingdoms of nature and novel-writing. An adventure that plays out right at home and on travels round Planet Earth.

The most important thing about me is what I can do for the natural world. It needs all the help it can get (follow the link above to see why). So whatever effort I make and whatever money I earn goes straight back to the World. The most valuable bits of which, on a personal level and as indicators of environmental health, are birds.

If they're doing badly, the planet is doing badly.

And they are doing badly.

They're my hobby too so I try to find birds and keep all sorts of birding lists with the excuse that it’s citizen science but it may be no more than my inner trainspotter. At the very least it keeps track of all the sites I've visited around the world. I write a birding blog, which veers off into my other writing, viz. one complete novel, and the odd short story and movie.

This is also a major fulfilment for me and hopefully more than a little entertaining (and informative?) for any reader. So much so that I’m also half-way through two other novels: one is science fiction, the other semi-autobiographical. I also have a travel book about my birding adventures through Australasia.

I’m blessed to have the freedom to live this way although I do see it as a consequence of taking on 100% responsibility for my life – the other side of the coin, as it were. I have Landmark Education and an ongoing process of maintaining integrity (always a challenge!) to thank for that.

My present roosting site is Portishead, near Bristol, which, having been my home twenty years ago, begins to complete an arc for me. My final resting place could see me back in Winchester where I grew up. It has an appeal after my globetrotting – well, mainly five years in the USA. Most of this perambulation has been as a programmer in C++ and Win32.

I also play a little Texas Holdem poker online and dabble in movies; modern art; and whatever my latest fancy is.