Mike Weedon is a lifelong birder and wildlife watcher. He completed a PhD in palaeontology at the University of Bristol, then worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Natural History Museum in London, and at Hokkaido University, Japan. For many years, he has been the assistant editor of Bird Watching, the UK's best-selling monthly magazine for birdwatchers. Mike's fascination with birds started when he was about eight years old, hiding in the garden shed to watch starlings feeding on the lawn. These days, he does most of his birdwatching around Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, where he lives with his family. His garden, near the city centre, is very much wildlife-oriented, and he has recorded 90 species of bird there, as well as 22 butterfly species, 16 dragonflies and several hundred moths, plus foxes, deer and hedgehogs.