User:Andrewself

I've been a London Birder since 1984. My local patch is Brent Reservoir and I’m fortunate enough to live adjacent to it. My best finds at Brent include: Great White Egret (a joint find and a first for London), Lesser Scaup (2nd for London but also seen elsewhere), Blue-winged Teal (3rd for London), Ring-billed Gull (10th), White-winged Black Tern (28th), two Yellow-browed Warblers and a Spoonbill (seen from my flat). I also co-found a Black Stork at Cheshunt on a bird race which was a first for London (this proves how luck plays its part in finding rarities as we wouldn't even have been there if we didn't still need Lesser Whitethroat!).

I’m also the London Bird Recorder and Editor of the London Bird Report. When I’m not at Brent Res I’m probably birding overseas. I have visited every continent and have seen 4539 species.

The best bird I've ever seen is Great Grey Owl - a female on a nest with three well grown young and a male nearby on lookout - stunning! Although an adult male Pied Harrier in Nepal comes a pretty close 2nd and the Yellow-headed-Picathartes in Ghana must be 3rd.

Apart from birds I'm also interested in butterflies (UK List 48 including Large Tortoiseshell & Monarch), moths (I run a trap) and mammals (Total 355; I saw 11 Tigers in 2005 and Mountain Gorilla, Wolf, Black Bear & Puma in 2006). And rock music (in the last few years I've been to see UFO (3 times), Rush, Magnum, Def Leppard & Whitesnake).

Andrew Self, December 2009.