Paul Stanbury in Rautfjord, Svalbard

When and how did your interest in wildlife begin?

I’ve been interested in birds and wildlife for as long as I can remember. Apparently, I asked for a bird book for my 7th birthday, which my parents kindly bought along with my first pair of binoculars shortly afterwards. On weekends my brother – who’s also a keen naturalist and now works for the RSPB – and I would go on guided walks around Titchfield Haven Nature Reserve and my parents used to take us regularly to the New Forest too. Indeed, for my entire childhood I dragged my poor parents around various nature reserves in the UK and mapped out most of our family holidays overseas to hop from one wildlife hotspot to another!  My parents encouraged my hobby throughout (for which I am very grateful) and were rewarded with frogs in the bathtub and various other ‘rescued’ wildlife in the house and garden. I used to love our regular visits to the Natural History Museum and our time on holiday in Dorset where I developed one of my other life-long interests, fossil collecting. We had many overseas family holiday adventures, although none as memorable as our trip to Kenya, when I was 16, when the wooden canoe in which we were birdwatching from in the middle of Lake Naivasha was attacked by a very angry Hippo!

When and where did you lead your first tour for Naturetrek?

My very first tour with Naturetrek turned into a baptism by fire. Shortly after starting in January 1996, David Mills very kindly asked if I wanted to go to Nepal. Of course, I jumped at the chance and was signed up to join one of our fondly-remembered £990’s to Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve and Chitwan National Park. Unfortunately, things didn’t go exactly to plan when one of Royal Nepal’s two long-haul airliners pranged another aircraft on the ground a few days before our departure causing the cancellation of our flight and rerouting to Kathmandu via Delhi. On arrival into Delhi our onward flight was also cancelled and we were all stranded in the Indian capital for nearly three days! Of course, the Naturetrek group members rightly turned to me to sort things out unaware that I had only been working for the company for a couple of weeks and was just as clueless as they were about how to get to Kathmandu. It was a steep learning curve, but with the help of David, our friendly guides in India and Nepal and Druk Air, we eventually made it to Nepal where the stresses of the previous days quickly melted away as we started enjoying the Ibisbills, Greater One-horned Rhinos and spectacular scenery of this wonderful Himalayan Kingdom.

What is, or was, your day job?

I joined Naturetrek in January 1996 and have been with the company ever since. I work as Operations Manager in charge of a portfolio of tours that includes most of our Southern African holidays, plus polar cruises, Canada, southern South America and a few other ‘randoms’ too.  I am also involved in the writing and production of our brochure and quarterly newsletters and enjoy heading out tour leading too from time to time.

What other interests do you have outside of wildlife?

I have two boys – Daniel aged 9 and Adam aged 12 – and so ‘free time’ for other interests is at a premium these days! As mentioned above, however, I also enjoy fossil hunting and of course, love to travel (although that is usually in search of wildlife!).

What current conservation projects or issues most concern you?

Where to start! The continual loss of forests around the world, and other habitats, is of great concern and it saddens me that very little has changed in my lifetime and that conservationists are still fighting against the same destruction of rainforests etc that they were when I was a child. Climate change is, obviously, a huge issue too, as is the continuing pollution being pumped into our seas and waterways. I am also a firm believer that ecotourism can play an important part in global conservation. Now the world is opening up once again – following the worry and trauma of the past 18 months – it is vitally important to get birders and wildlife enthusiasts (and the tourist dollars they bring with them) back into Ecuador’s cloudforest lodges and tracking Gorillas once again in Uganda. Without them the world’s wildlife faces an even more uncertain future.

Do you have a favourite bird, mammal or plant?

Without doubt my favourite bird is the Waxwing, and I have been known to harp on a bit about them from time to time! We must be due another “Waxwing winter” in the near future, although living on the south coast it needs to be a good one to get them this far south. I have even planted a ‘Pink Pagoda’ – one of their favourite ornamental rowans – in my back garden in the hope of getting one of these exquisite birds onto the garden list one day. Waxwings aside, I have a soft spot for waders and American wood-warblers, and in the world of mammals there is nothing like watching a pod of Orcas pass by, a sight I’ve been fortunate to witness a few times whilst leading our ‘Canada: The West’ tour.

What is your most memorable wildlife encounter to date?

I have been fortunate to travel to many wonderful places during my 25 years with Naturetrek and have seen some amazing wildlife spectacles in that time. To pick one standout experience is difficult but if forced to I would choose South Georgia, in particular St Andrew’s Bay. I visited the island on our 30th anniversary ‘Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica cruise’ in early 2016. It was a gloriously sunny morning when we arrived at St Andrew’s Bay with barely a breath of wind and clear blue skies. We landed on the beach and – after negotiating a few grumpy fur seals – we walked up and onto a ridge. There, spread out before us, was the most incredible sight of over half a million King Penguins backed by the jagged snow-capped spine of South Georgia. This was the spot where David Attenborough had stood during his ‘Trials of Life’ series and on such a stunningly-beautiful day it was breathtaking. I feel very privileged to have seen such a natural wonder and the view from that ridgeline is now the wallpaper on my home computer.

What do you enjoy most about leading tours?

I enjoy being with like-minded people as keen on wildlife as I am and sharing their excitement and enjoyment. Of course, I also love travel and seeing new things myself, but wildlife-watching is never as much fun on your own and always more rewarding when you can share the experience with others.

What new destinations would you like to visit next?

There are still many places I’d love to visit and many I’d like to return to as well. Sichuan in China is near the top of the list, especially in the autumn when the Red Pandas venture into the trees to feed on fruit. I go green with envy every time I read a report from our ‘Wild China – Sichuan’s Birds & Mammals’ tour and would love to see the flocks of dazzling-blue Grandalas, the rare Pallas’s Cat and flat-faced Tibetan Fox … as well as the Red Pandas of course. China aside, I would also like to visit the high altiplano lakes in Chile, watch Narwhals off Baffin Island and explore New Zealand.

What are you reading at the moment?

I am reading ‘A World on the Wing’ by Scott Weidensaul, a fascinating book on the wonders of bird migration. The increasing use of geolocators and satellite tags has revealed the amazing feats of endurance and navigation undertaken by millions of birds twice a year, including Bar-tailed Godwits that fly non-stop between Alaska and New Zealand every autumn covering over 12,000 kilometres in eight days without a break!

Which 3 people would you invite to dinner?

David Attenborough, of course, who has been an icon of mine since childhood. Stephen Fry would keep the conversation going and Professor Brian Cox could attempt to explain physics and the universe to me!