I was born in North Wales (you guessed from the name) but my family moved to Sheffield when I was just five and I've lived here ever since.

Unlike many of my colleagues on the Committee, I came to bird-watching rather late in life. I'd been a keen angler through my teens and twenties with only the general interest in natural history that often accompanies that sport. I'd seen the odd bird that I didn't recognise and managed to identify them (Sedge Warbler and Reed Bunting) from the Readers Digest Book of Birds, and that might have been the end of the story had it not been a comment from an old school friend that he'd found something even better than fishing. Curious, I followed his directions to a small sewage farm near Wakefield and, in the space of one morning, was completely hooked on bird ringing.

Obviously, if I was to pursue this new hobby, I'd have to learn something about birds and I was fortunate that my ringing trainer, Pete Smith, also happened to be a top-notch (and patient) birder who gave me a good grounding to build from.

I didn't get involved with Sheffield Bird Study Group until 1982 (was it that long ago?). I'd been watching Catcliffe Flash regularly for a couple of years on my way home from work and, one day, was lucky enough to find a pair of Black-necked Grebes - and thought I'd better tell someone.