Ian Porter

Ian started birdwatching at primary school and, with friends, started developing and building his knowledge. Meeting new experienced birders opened up opportunities such as twitching exotic rarities which back then included the likes of Little Egret! Having experienced mentors helped broaden Ian’s knowledge and encouraged his passion to develop. His interests widened at Reading University when he stumbled upon Hartslock BBONT Reserve when searching for Adonis Blue and found the beautiful Monkey Orchids. That first rare orchid widened Ian’s interests into almost all aspects of UK wildlife, especially butterflies, dragonflies, and mammals.

From early on, Ian enjoyed photography and whilst a film SLR was perfect for plants, reptiles, amphibians and insects, the advent of digital allowed Ian to take on birds too. Ian was early to digiscoping and his Nikon Coolpix995 captured such rarities as Mongolian Sandplover, the Belted Kingfisher at Peterculter and Kildeer at Breydon Water. Ian notes that digital’s instant feedback improves his results but his grounding in film gave him a solid grasp of the physics of photography and the compositional rules (to be broken).

Ian has two boys and schooling them in the wonders of the world has developed his interest in engaging and exciting people of the natural history to be seen and experienced. He strongly believes that there’s so much more to a day out where memories, learning, experiences and who we shared our time with are prioritised over a mere list of species seen. Ian gets an enormous amount of pleasure seeing people’s faces when they’re enjoying a new experience, hearing their excitement and sharing their wonder. Equipping people with skills or knowledge is a legacy that Ian wants to be proud of on the trips he leads.