Hugh Harrop
Hugh founded Shetland Wildlife in 1992 after spells working for Fair Isle
Bird Observatory, the Shetland Oil Terminal Environmental Advisory Group
and the RSPB. He is regarded as one of Shetland's top birders and naturalists,
is a regular contributor to several birdwatching magazines and journals
and author of Where to Watch Birds in Shetland. Although Hugh's main interests
are birds and their identification, he also has a passion for all other
aspects of natural history, especially whales and dolphins and Polar Bears!
Hugh is also a feature writer for several European natural history magazines,
an award-winning professional
photographer whose work has been widely published in journals and
newspapers throughout Europe and North America, photographic consultant
to the journals Scottish Birds and Seabird, a member
of the Shetland Bird Club rarities and general committee, a former committee
member of Scottish Wildlife Trust and a founder member of both Organisation
Cetacea (ORCA) and the Shetland Sea Mammal Group! When not working in
Shetland, Hugh guides our European overseas tours or travels extensively
with his wife Michelle and daughter Cerys to exciting wildlife-filled
and toddler-friendly destinations!
David Fairhurst
David's life-long passion for birding and wildlife led him to follow a
varied career in conservation for nearly 20 years. Prior to working as
a full-time naturalist guide for Shetland Wildlife, he was based at Minsmere
in Suffolk, where he worked on several projects including the role of
Senior Research Assistant for the RSPB's Bittern monitoring programme.
Other posts in the UK have included stints with University of East Anglia
studying Woodlarks in Dorset, habitat management at Abernethy Forest and
species protection on Anglesey. His career has also taken him much further
afield, undertaking research in Jordan and Israel and also working to
restore fragile island ecosystems in the Seychelles. David is no stranger
to tricky bird ID; he was a member of the Suffolk rarities committee for
five years, and Suffolk's County Recorder for three years. His skills
as a naturalist guide are matched by very few and he has quickly become
an integral part of the Shetland Wildlife team.
Michelle Harrop
Michelle originates from British Columbia, Canada. After gaining her degree
in Geography at the University of Colorado, she worked in the North American
eco-tourism industry for several years before moving to Shetland in 1999
- after meeting Hugh on a Polar Bear trip in Churchill! Her frequent travels
in search of wildlife have taken her to locations such as Southern and
Northern Europe, Antarctica, Botswana, Ecuador, Galapagos and the high
Arctic regions of Canada. As well as being a mother to little Cerys (who
got Killer Whale on her list when she was two weeks old!), Michelle is
our office manager and the driving force behind the successful day-to-day
operations of Shetland Wildlife. When not working in our office, Michelle,
Hugh and little Cerys escape Shetland and travel to far-flung corners
of the earth in search of exciting wildlife.
Jon Dunn
Originally from Cornwall, Jon grew up birding and working on conservation
projects in Dorset's Blackmoor Vale before moving to Kent to study agriculture,
where he developed a keen interest in butterflies and flowering plants.
He first visited Shetland in 1992, and after returning every year for
further holidays he finally moved here permanently in 2003. Jon works
for the local council's development unit, a job that takes him the length
and breadth of Shetland and to some of the isles' most remote and beautiful
locations. His recent projects include the brand new bird observatory
on Fair Isle, and the planned redevelopment of the iconic Sumburgh Head
complex that houses the Shetland RSPB. He lives on the island of Whalsay,
where he runs a small croft and is passionate about finding his own migrant
birds. Jon has travelled extensively in the UK and Europe looking for
birds, butterflies and orchids.
Judd Hunt
Judd lives in Cardiff and is employed as a manager within the Civil Service.
Judd has been an avid birdwatcher since 1979 and is a founder member of
the Glamorgan Bird Club. Since his first trip abroad, to Canada in 1986,
Judd has travelled much of the globe in search of new and exciting species
and lists anywhere in South America, India and Europe as his favourite
destinations. He developed a keen interest in cetaceans in the mid-1980s
when he used to sail across the Irish Sea with Hugh in search of seabirds
and still clearly remembers his first encounters with Fin Whales and Orcas!
Since 2000, Judd has worked for our sister business, The Company of Whales
and has lost count of the number of people he has guided across his favourite
piece of ocean, the Bay of Biscay! Judd has also worked as a guide for
Shetland Wildlife since 2002 and has travelled extensively within Shetland,
Spain, France and Poland in this capacity. Although widely travelled,
Judd still dreams of visiting the Antarctic Peninsula and the islands
in the South Atlantic, hopefully as a guide for Shetland Wildlife or the
Company of Whales!
Glenn Overington
Glenn is a very rare beast in the World of natural history guiding in
the sense that he joined Shetland Wildlife over ten years ago - as a customer!
We were so impressed by his sharp eyes, his incredible knowledge and his
immense people skills that we decided he really should work for us - and
he gladly accepted! Since then, he has guided hundreds of folk across
the Bay of Biscay with our sister-business, The Company of Whales and
worked for Shetland Wildlife in Poland, Finland, Norway and France. Glenn
is an experienced birdwatcher and his favourite birding destinations include
Scandinavia, Spitsbergen and Eastern Europe. Glenn is also a highly motivated
photographer, taking images of natural history and landscapes on his journeys.
He lives in Worthing, West Sussex with his wife Terriena and young son
Harry.
Harri Taavetti
Harri hails from Oulu, Finland and co-guides our adventures to both his
homeland and northern Norway. Harri's wildlife career started in 1990
at the age of 14 and since 1997, he has been recognised as one of Finland's
top birders and guides. As well as being a freelance naturalist guide,
he also works as a bird survey specialist and is the Chairman of his local
records committee. Harri is a keen and extremely creative photographer
and in 2007 he secured two top-ten placings in the British Birds Bird
Photograph of the Year (unforgivably beating Hugh!). Like most of our
guides, pen-to-paper activities are an important aspect of the job and
Harri has written several papers and identification articles for journals,
magazines and books. Overseas travel has also featured in Harri's career
and he has visited great birding destinations like Israel, Hungary, Spain,
India and China.
Dr Jonathan Wills
Jonathan is the skipper for our trips to Noss and has been boating around
the shores of Shetland since childhood holidays. Born in Oxford to a Lerwick
mother, he's lived in Shetland for most of his adult life. Jonathan's
an honorary warden of Noss National Nature Reserve, a former boatman to
the Muckle Flugga Lighthouse, and wrote his Edinburgh University Ph.D.
on the historical geography of Shetland. He was inspired to take up wildlife
guiding by the late Bobby Tulloch, who taught him much of what he knows
about seabirds, seals and otters - and how to get close to them. He's
also a local councillor (one of the best we have!) and in the winter he
undertakes bird and wildlife surveys for Aberdeen University and Scottish
Natural Heritage and writes books for children!
Nigel and Wendy Milius
Nigel and Wendy married after meeting at Fair Isle Bird Observatory
and now live in Wendy's home country, New Zealand where they guide
wildlife-watching holidays during the Austral summer. For 'our'
summer, they head north to work for us here in Shetland or in the
Arctic, where they are employed as a wildlife lecturers and guides on
board small cruise ships. Both are widely travelled with Chile,
Argentina, Australia, Canada, the Falkland Islands, the Bering Sea,
South Africa, China and The Galapagos featuring in their journeys.
They both have friendly outgoing personalities and look forward to
sharing their knowledge of - and enthusiasm for - the 'North' with our guests.
Martin Kelsey OBE
Martin lives with his wife, Claudia, and son Patrick in Spain running
their superb guest house (which we stay at on our trip to Extremadura!)
and enjoys showing visitors its wealth of birds and other wildlife, helping
out on bird survey work, as well as looking after their garden and olive
grove (and has an impressive garden list to prove it!). Martin started
birding as a small boy in Essex in the sixties and since then has birded
in five continents. Whilst studying ecology at the University of East
Anglia, he took part in expeditions to the Caribbean and Kenya and then
went on to the Edward Grey Institute for Field Ornithology in Oxford to
complete a doctorate on Marsh Warblers. He subsequently spent three years
studying birds in the Amazon rain forest with the British Ornithologists'
Union, where he met Claudia. Returning to the UK, he worked for BirdLife
International for five years, before joining Save the Children, spending
four years living in Colombia and then four years in India, as well as
a short spell in Ethiopia. He was awarded the OBE in 2001. A founder member
and first Chairman of the Neotropical Bird Club, he has been an active
member of bird clubs and societies everywhere he has lived.
Hywel Maggs
Hywel has had a keen interest in wildlife since an early age and has travelled
widely to fulfil his passion. After graduating in Environmental Science
in 1992, Hywel worked as a shorebird warden for the National Trust in
Northumberland. During this time he also played as a semi-professional
musician with a band that toured extensively both in the UK and abroad.
In 1998 he took up post as a warden at Gibraltar Point National Nature
Reserve and Bird Observatory where his work focussed on shorebirds and
day-to-day management of a NNR. Following two years on the shores of the
Wash, Hywel migrated north to Fair Isle for two seasons of rare migrants
and seabirds. Here, he fine-tuned his knowledge on both and has been returning
during spring and autumn ever since. Hywel now works for the RSPB in East
Scotland as Corn Bunting Officer. Based in Aberdeen, he works wherever
the species still exists in Scotland. Travel is still very much part of
his life and during recent years, Hywel has been on trips to New Zealand,
the United Arab Emirates and a number of European destinations.
Laughton Johnston
Laughton is the author of A Naturalist's Shetland, the only comprehensive
account of Shetland's natural history from its geological beginnings to
the present day. He is also the author of Scotland's Nature in Trust,
written in association with the National Trust for Scotland on the environmental
management of their island and mountain properties. At present he is writing
a book for Scottish Natural Heritage, to celebrate the 50th birthday of
the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve. He has an excellent knowledge
of Shetland's wildlife, as well as its history and culture, being a half-Shetlander
himself and familiar with the islands since childhood. From 1969 until
he took early retirement four years ago he has worked for Scottish Natural
Heritage. During that period among other things, he was responsible for
Shetland and Orkney for 6 years and the island of Rum on the West Coast
of Scotland. Because of his love of the islands he has recently renovated
a cottage in Sandness where he now spends half the year wildlife guiding
and writing.
Rob Still
Rob has had a keen interest in wildlife since childhood. Rob has travelled
all over the world in search of wildlife, but has a particular fondness
for South America. After obtaining a degree in Ecology from UEA he formed
his own graphic design company, producing material for conservation bodies
such as Butterfly Conservation, ORCA, and The Neotropical and Oriental
Bird Clubs. Rob's artwork has appeared in such diverse places as a British
Birds front cover and the Trinidad and Tobago High Commission in Nigeria!
More recently Rob has been the driving force behind WildGuides - a publishing
company specialising in wildlife guides that help raise funds for conservation.
He has designed and co-authored books on Galápagos and British
butterflies. He is responsible for co-ordinating both Shetland Wildlife's
and The Company of Whales brochures and media design and is looking forward
to some exciting new publishing projects with Hugh and David over the
next year or so!
Lynn Duncan
Lynn has lived in the south Mainland of Shetland all her life and feels
privileged to stay in an area that has so much to offer. Over the years
she has learnt much about Shetland's rich cultural heritage, folklore
and traditions from her work in the Shetland library. A significant amount
of her time is spent walking to the remoter parts of the isles and Lynn
especially loves to share this experience with others whenever the chance
arises. For her there are so many different ways to see Shetland - whether
it is from behind the camera, rowing in a yoal, walking beaches or cliff
tops, it doesn't matter. So long as it's outside!
Dylan Walker
Dylan Walker is a professional field naturalist, conservationist and tour
guide. Having completed a degree in Ecology, Dylan has been involved in
a wide variety of conservation projects working with, amongst others,
Koala Bears, Loggerhead Turtles and Laurel Pigeons. During the last few
years, he has conducted cetacean and seabird surveys throughout the north
east Atlantic from the Faroe Islands to the Canaries, and taken part in
research projects on Pilot Whales and Bottlenose Dolphins. He has been
heavily involved in whale watching and cetacean research in the Bay of
Biscay since 1996, helping to set up ORCA (Organisation Cetacea) and co-ordinating
sightings data collected by a network of volunteer observers. More recently,
Dylan set up UK Cetnet, the country's first inter-active email discussion
group on cetaceans and he is currently finishing off a new field guide
to cetaceans in the European Atlantic. A combined appetite for wildlife
and travel has taken Dylan to much of Europe, North Africa and Australia.
His friendly personality, good sense of humour and unquenchable enthusiasm
for nature make him an excellent and highly popular staff naturalist guide.