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Andy Hirst, since the age of 10 has been interested in birds, which has developed in to a serious full-time hobby and job. For the past 29 years he has watched birds throughout the length and breadth of the UK and further afield. Although these days most of his birding is done locally, surveying, filming and birding in SK58 (a 10km square between Sheffield, Rotherham and Worksop). He was the youngest ever registered Young Ornithologists Club (YOC) leader in the UK and ran a very successful group in Sheffield for seven years. In the mid 80's was active in protecting Goshawks in the Peak District, occasionally assisting RSPB staff with the development and trials of intruder detection equipment. He also spent a summer season as a Species Protection Warden for the National Trust, providing 24 hour cover on (then) rare nesting Peregrines in the Peak District.
In 1992 Andy was cofounder of the very successful SK58 Birders, a local bird group covering a 10km x 10km square (SK58) between Sheffield, Rotherham and Worksop. (www.sk58birders.com) During this time Andy has served as chairman and treasurer. He has been recorder for the past 13 years and contributor, writer, co-editor and editor of the multi-award-winning annual bird report. He has also successfully developed the video production side of SK58 Birders. He instigated and maintains the SK58 Birders website, which is frequently updated. In 1994 Andy changed tack and became the first employee of the newly formed BirdGuides Ltd in Sheffield. A multimedia and video production company. During his first 8 years with the company he served as Office Manager and for the last 3 years was Production Manager, he was responsible for bolting the various CD/ DVD products together, as well as filming, editing and archiving video footag
e and sound recordings using Final Cut Pro, and Cool Edit on footage and sounds captured on Hi8 and latterly DV with experience of Digi-Beta formats. Thanks to BirdGuides he's travelled to Middle East, Canada and the states, and throughout the UK.
Andy left BirdGuides in late 2002 to pursue a simpler life, to enable him to devote more time to projects closer to home, using his skills and experience from nearly 30 years in the birding scene. Although in 2005 Andy came back to the fold, working full-time for BirdGuides as Office Manager, managing the day to day business, although he gets out and about filming & editing when he can using the BirdGuides new HD camera, for the new High Definition BirdGuides archive.
Andy recently set up on his own, under the name of Gone Birding. He hopes to put his skills and experience to good use in the commercial birding / wildlife production scene and hopes to continue developing small group tours within the UK and overseas, something he has successfully done for friends and local groups for over 20 years. He also hopes to put his filming and editing skills to good use freelance. Despite all these projects he still gets out birding in his favoured SK58. When not at work Andy splits his time between SK58 Birders and Gone Birding, helping produce the (some what late) SK58 bird reports, as well as producing SK58 videos, and organising surveys. He is still group recorder and maintains their website.
Ben Keywood, has been on all our Romanian tours and is very enthusiastic about the country and its wildlife, particularly birds & butterflies, and was a natural choice to lead future tours here for Gone Birding. Since 2004 Ben has been President of The Rotherham and District Ornithological Society, (www.rotherhambirds.co.uk) having previously been Recorder for the Society since 1991. In this capacity he has worked closely with local government, wildlife groups and the RSPB for the conservation of wild birds and their habitats. For the past 6 years he has lead guided walks for Rotherham Borough Councils Countryside Events Service, showing the general public local wildlife. Perhaps better known- Ben is a very well respected and knowledgeable Lepidopterist, and has had several articles published on butterflies and provided management advice on conservation of butterfly habitats in the Rotherham area. He's a member of Butterfly Conservation, Entomological Livestock Group and The Amateur Entomologists Society. Outside of his natural history interests he is a partner in a retail and mail order company selling cult television books and merchandise. Ben's interests are wide an varied, but is equally enthusiastic and knowledgeable on all.
Ben has been on all our Romanian tours and offers unrivalled knowledge of the areas butterflies, moths and insects- this compliments our local guide- Andu's extensive knowledge on all aspects of Romanian birdlife, culture & history. Ben is often found gambling around meadows or woods with his butterfly net during meal breaks or birding stops he offers an extra dimension to the tour.