GREENWINGS - Key Persons
Adrian Hoskins is a professional photographer and author of 1000 Butterflies & Butterflies of the World. His contagious enthusiasm for butterflies and photography took him first to Europe and then to Trinidad, where he found himself awestruck by the rainforest and its infinite wonders.
In 2006 he created his website www.learnaboutbutterflies.com, widely regarded as the most complete and authoritative on-line resource on butterflies. It was created firstly as a receptacle for his photographs and knowledge - a means of archiving what he had seen and learnt, and passing it on to others. Secondly, he saw it as a tool to promote the conservation of butterflies and their habitats - particularly the irreplaceable rainforests of Amazonia, Africa, south-east Asia and Australia.
Adrian has written several scientific papers about butterflies and has discovered 10 new-to-science species on his various expeditions to the tropics. In 2013 he achieved the rare honour of being made a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society.
For the last 20 years he has organised and led numerous butterfly study expeditions to places including Costa Rica, Trinidad, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Estonia, Serbia, Macedonia, Ghana, Kenya, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Borneo.
Alice Hunter is a self-taught naturalist and professional wildlife photographer with a keen interest in botany and a particular love of macro subjects. Her passion for the natural world began as a child growing up in the wilds of Herefordshire, encouraged by her family and has been nurtured ever since.
She now enjoys sharing her love of the natural world with guests on the wildlife watching and photography tours that she leads for Greenwings.
Alice also enjoys nature writing and has had work published in a series of books for the Wildlife Trusts celebrating the seasons. Alice has a degree in Art History and enjoys combining visits to historical sites with seeing how nature has reclaimed them.
Ben first came to our attention as a regular guest on our tours. It was immediately apparent that he was very enthusiastic about butterflies and that he had impressive knowledge of them and their ecology, plus the willingness and communication skills to share this everyone else - all fine qualities which we look for in our leaders!
Ben led his first tours for us in Italy and Turkey during 2022 and garnered universal appreciation and praise from all the guests he was with and guides he was working alongside. Guests were impressed by Ben's knowledge, but also and importantly, by his attentiveness and patience in the field - understanding what they're looking to get out of the tour and then helping them to achieve their goals.
In 2023 Ben will be leading in Turkey, Italy, and Bulgaria. And we're confident that this is just the beginning of a long and successful career in tour leading with us.
Ben grew up in Birmingham and has had a keen interest in butterflies since childhood. His lifelong passion for them was triggered with exposure to the magic of metamorphosis through the captive rearing of common species found in local parks.
In later life Ben spent several years working as an ecologist and educational officer at Stratford upon Avon butterfly farm, where he gained experience of rearing tropical species and leading daily tours for visitors.
He began taking regular butterfly focused trips around Europe in his late 20's. He specialises now in Eastern Europe and Turkey but has excellent species knowledge and identification skills throughout Europe.
Ben now lives with his young family in Brighton, within walking distance from the South Downs. He dedicates much of the year to field studies, taking poorly understood aspects of butterfly ecology and seeking to further our knowledge through meticulous observation and record keeping.
Much of his recent work has focused on Purple Emperor and Small Tortoiseshell ecology for which he was recognised in 2022 with the prestigious UK Butterflies Outstanding Contribution Award.
Callan Cohen is an all-round naturalist with an interest in butterflies and has led over 100 birding, wildlife and botanical tours across Africa. Callan is based in South Africa, has acted as a consultant for the BBC Natural History Unit and has written two guides to birding in the region.
He guides alongside Steve Woodhall on our exclusive South Africa butterfly tour. During the trip he will be on hand to identify any birds, mammals, wildflowers and other creatures we encounter.
Dr Chris Gibson is an all-round naturalist, with a particular interest in plants and insects, and conservationist, having recently retired after 31 years' work with Natural England and its predecessors. He has been leading wildlife tours around Europe since 1988, including taking trips to Berdun in the Spanish Pyrenees for more than 25 years.
Dr Dan Danahar is a biodiversity educationalist, who has led a number of local initiatives within the city of Brighton & Hove, including persuading the public to count butterflies, which in turn inspired the national charity Butterfly Conservation to develop the Big Butterfly Count.
He has also introduced Butterfly Havens as a habitat restoration approach for chalk grassland butterflies, giving the public access to nature on their doorsteps. Dan is Executive Trustee of the charitable company Big Nature - www.bignature.co.uk, which aims to revitalise the relationship between people and their local wildlife by creating natural habitats within the UNESCO designated Brighton & Lewes Downs Biosphere region (The Living Coast).
In 2020 he set up the friends of the Liz Williams Butterfly Haven, a local community group in Brighton and Hove whose aim it is to manage the Liz Williams Butterfly Haven to enhance the teaching and learning opportunities for the staff and students of Dorothy Stringer School and to make a significant new contribution to local nature conservation.
Since 2014 he has worked to set up Corfu Butterfly Conservation, a UK registered Community Interest Company (No.13813164) which is a non-profit making organisation working in partnership with both governmental and non-governmental partners in Greece, the United Kingdom and Europe. www.corfubutterflyconservation.org. To date the organisation has six core aims:
To encourage the continued growth of a responsible community of Corfu butterfly enthusiasts.
To survey the butterflies of Corfu and determine the number of species present on the island, their distribution, as well as their flight periods.
To find out if the butterfly communities of Corfu could be used as indicators of good habitat quality and if so help with the conservation of other Corfiot wildlife.
To identify potential losses of species and habitats and inform the Greek authorities about which needs protecting.
To publish the butterfly survey results and the conclusions drawn from this data in the first comprehensive Corfu Butterfly Atlas.
To encourage eco-tourism outside the main tourist season bringing extra revenue to Corfu.
Dan first started to work with us as a guide in 2018 when he co-led a successful tour to north Greece for spring butterflies, followed by a tour of the butterflies of Southern Greece in 2019. His next project with us will be this exciting new holiday to Corfu for butterflies and other wildlife.
Dr Simon Spencer was trained as an entomologist and has worked on the conservation of butterflies in Wales and Shropshire for 25 years having been interested in butterflies all his life. He has led many informal trips to Europe to see butterflies and was the chairman of Butterfly Conservation's European Butterflies Group (EBG) for many years. He is a part time farmer and is particularly interested in the effect of changes in grazing on butterflies.
He and his wife have travelled extensively in Europe in a camper van looking for butterflies and occasionally filming them. He has been part of several collaborative projects in Europe where UK butterfly people work with local butterfly enthusiasts to survey and monitor butterflies.
Dr Yiannis Christofides is a botanist living in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus. Having obtained a degree in Chemistry from the University of London he returned to his mountain village where he took up botany. This led to a new book on the Orchids of Cyprus. Several new plants were recorded for Cyprus and new locations were found for old ones. He was invited to be one of the authors of the Red Data Book of the Flora of Cyprus. In 2017 Yiannis wrote & published a new Illustrated Flora of Cyprus, a culmination of the many years of his botanical study on the island.
His interests include Orchids round the Mediterranean, the Floras of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey and also the flora of European Mountains. He takes a keen interest in other life-forms such as Butterflies and other Insects, Reptiles, Dragonflies and even Lichens. He likes to share his knowledge with members of his groups and his infectious enthusiasm makes him one of our most popular leaders. Yiannis is also knowledgeable about the geology and history of areas he visits. He currently leads on our Cyprus, Lesvos, Crete, Rhodes, Peloponnese, French Pyrenees & Alps, Bulgaria and Italian Dolomites trips.
Yiannis speaks fluent English, Greek and German.
George Spiridakis was born in Cyprus in 1988, where he first started birdwatching as a teenager. He was always fascinated by nature and wildlife, so just after the end of his army duty in Cyprus he moved to Thessaloniki to study forestry and environmental management, at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has since travelled to many parts of Northern Greece, visiting most of the wetlands and mountains of the region. He now resides in one of the villages, just next to Lake Kerkini, where he has become involved in the Lesser-White Fronted Goose conservation program and the monitoring of other birds and wildlife, in collaboration with the National Park Management Authorities. He also now leads birdwatching tours in Lake Kerkini National Park and further afield, to others parts of north Greece. George is an excellent birder and general naturalist, with a keen interest in mammals and reptiles. He leads on some of our birding trips to Kerkini and other places in the north Greece and is a regular and very popular guide for us.
Jack Perks is a professional wildlife photographer based in Nottingham. He's written and illustrated articles for magazines such as BBC Wildlife, Outdoor Photography and Diver to name a few. He published his first book ‘Freshwater Fishes of Britain‘ in 2016 and his second ‘a field guide to pond and river wildlife' is out in 2018. Conservation is a something Jack is passionate about, having filmed for many groups such as WWF, Natural England, RSPB and The Wildlife Trusts though the underwater world is what really fascinates him having photographed 53 of the 57 freshwater fish species (nearly there!) and enjoys nothing more then being by a river. Jack has a particular interest in the the less liked of our species like reptiles, insects, fish etc, and tries to put them in more of a positive light.
Along with stills Jack has featured and filmed for many TV programmes such as Springwatch, Countryfile, The One Show and Wild Britain. He currently teaches photography at Nottingham Trent University and a part time lecturer at The University of Nottingham.
Jason Mitchell was born and raised in Devon where, from an early age he developed a passion for birds and other wildlife, especially dragonflies and butterflies. From his earliest volunteering experience on the Exe Estuary he dreamt of working in conservation and after returning to education in his mid-twenties, graduated from Plymouth University and started work for the RSPB as a warden on the East Devon Pebblebed Heaths. Since then he's worked on various conservation projects for local government and the Wildlife Trust. In 2010 Jason returned to the RSPB as Warden for the North Kent Marshes.
In June 2013, he moved to La Brenne in France with his wife and young family in pursuit of a new challenge. La Brenne was an obvious choice for Jason; his wife is French and having visited the Loire Valley over many years fell in love with the ‘Land of a Thousand Lakes'. Now well establish, he works as a tree surgeon in the winter months and a nature guide in the summer. Specialising in wildlife tours within France, he also leads across Europe having done so since 2007.
Kat Dahl is a passionate naturalist born and bred, with a particular interest in insects, especially moths and butterflies. She is a wildlife guide for the Knepp Wildland project in Sussex, specialising in tours for Purple Emperor and other butterflies, and she is also a Learning Officer with the Berks Bucks Oxon Wildlife Trust, teaching people of all ages about wildlife. She has been a member of the Upper Thames Butterfly Conservation committee and is a member of their Conservation and Recording Team, and is an iRecord verifier for Upper Thames butterflies. She is also a member of Berkshire and Sussex Moth Groups, and leads the moth surveying for the Steyning Downland Scheme, a landscape conservation project in Sussex.
Kat has worked on projects to protect turtles in Cyprus and rehabilitate Snow Leopards in Kyrgyzstan, but is happiest moth-trapping, butterfly-watching and caterpillar-hunting, and sharing the wonders of nature with others.
Job Titles:
- Specialist With the Nature Conservancy Council
Martin Warren OBE is one of Europe's leading butterfly ecologists, having studied butterflies for over 45 years. He has been leading wildlife tours around Europe for the last 25 years and has recently written a widely acclaimed book Butterflies: a Natural History published by Bloomsbury. He was a major contributor to the Red Data Book of European Butterflies and Climatic Risk Atlas of European Butterflies. He was awarded an OBE for his services for the environment in 2017.
Following a research career at London and Cambridge, Martin became a butterfly specialist with the Nature Conservancy Council before joining Butterfly Conservation as their first Conservation Officer in 1993. Later, as Chief Executive, he helped the charity grow to become the largest insect NGO in the world. In 2004, he helped found Butterfly Conservation Europe which now has over 40 partner organisations in 35 countries across Europe. Martin has published over 300 scientific papers and has been voted in the top 10 British conservationists by BBC Wildlife Magazine. He has a wealth of knowledge about European butterflies which he is keen to use to inspire people to enjoy and conserve these amazing insects.
Matt Doogue has always been fascinated with wildlife, especially invertebrates and he discovered that you could get great close up pictures using a macro lens on your DSLR, so taught himself how to get those incredible images he was so used to seeing on the internet and in magazines. Matt's work is now published in a variety of magazines, websites and on television with BBC Springwatch. He has a regular feature on the BBC Earth website and has now drawn the attention of National Geographic and Canon. This year Matt will also judge the macro category of the British Photography Awards. Some of Matt's work can be found on his Facebook page.
Matt also runs a conservation group with friends called ‘A planet fit for nature', The aim is simple; to educate children and families about our wildlife, its current condition, and what we can do to help save and conserve it.
Oliver Wright is is a professional photographer, who left a corporate office job behind him in 2014. Now 47 he works as an arctic landscape/aurora photographic guide during the winter period and then in the summer time completes his own projects and undertakes other photographic guiding and teaching.
Oliver is a passionate specialist in macro photography and has developed his own techniques for handheld stacking images, which produce a very unique view into the insect world. The technique is also used in other photographic genres. He is very much an outdoors/wildlife person so is feeling he has definitely made the right career move!
Oliver often gives talks for Canon about his photography and has represented them at some major events, talking on the main stage at ‘The Photography Show 2019' and at the BirdFair, the largest wildlife event of its kind in the world, in 2017, 2018 and 2019. This year Oliver was also a judge for the BBC Countryfile Photography Calendar Competition and appeared on the program.
Job Titles:
- Writer for the Guardian and the Author of the Butterfly Isles
Patrick Barkham is Natural History Writer for the Guardian and the author of The Butterfly Isles.
An enthusiastic amateur naturalist, Patrick was born in Norfolk and was educated at Cambridge University. He developed a passion for butterflies as an eight-year-old searching for the Brown Argus but only completed his boyhood mission in 2009, when he saw all 59 species of British butterfly in one summer and wrote a book about it.
His second book, Badgerlands, was hailed by Chris Packham as "a must read for all Britain's naturalists". His latest book, Coastlines, a history of coastal conservation, was praised by Blake Morrison as "an informative, enthusiastic and at times rapturous celebration of our shores". His third book, Islander, is about the human and non-human residents of Britain's small isles. His latest book, Wild Green Wonders, is a selection of twenty years' worth of Patrick Barkham's writings for the Guardian, bearing witness to the many changes we have imposed upon the planet and the challenges lying ahead for the future of nature.
He lives in the land of the Swallowtail with his three young children and is very proud of his four-year-old twins for being able to distinguish a Peacock from a Painted Lady at 100 yards.
In 2012 he received The Marsh Christian Trust Award for the Promotion of Lepidoptera Conservation from Butterfly Conservation.
In 2021 Patrick became President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, testament to his love and dedication for Norfolk and its wild treasures.
He hasn't yet persuaded his publisher to accept The European Butterfly Isles but one day he will!
Paul Fraser studied Marine and Freshwater Biology before going on to study for an MSci in Fisheries Management. After graduating from the University of Glasgow, Paul went on to work as a Freshwater Biologist and later an Aquatic Ecologist. Whilst identifying aquatic invertebrates via microscopy work, Paul realised he was captivated and awestruck by the details he could see whilst working up-close with invertebrates. During 2020, because of the Covid Pandemic, Paul was confined to working from home. It was during this time he took up macro-photography in his garden to keep his passion for insects alive and to educate his young children on the mini beasts they encountered each day. Since then, his love for photography and insects has really pushed him to develop his skills in macro-photography.
Paul recently won WeNaturalists ‘Photographer of the Year 2023' for his insect-macro-photography. His photography has been featured by the BBC, Glasgow Times, and he has had written articles about his passion for insect-photography featured in The Metro and The Herald. He recently became an Ambassador for the wildlife charity Buglife too!
Paul Harcourt Davies is a professional photographer/author and conservationist with an international reputation gained through his images, his numerous books (19 to date), articles and lectures.
He has led botanical, natural history and photographic trips for three decades and has lectured in the UK, USA, Cyprus (where he lived from 1978-81) and Italy on various aspects of photography and natural history, taught hundreds of workshops and is a prolific writer.
Paul is known for his images of plants in landscapes and has become regarded by many as the ‘macromaestro' for the close-up techniques he has developed for insects and plants and then made available to other photographers… he is on a mission to demystify elements of photography which his background, a combination of science (physics) and the arts makes possible.
He is regarded as an authority on the Mediterranean flora and fauna (orchids in particular) and has been involved in numerous conservation projects. He was a founder member of the Hardy Orchid society, served as its chairman and is now an honorary Vice President: he was also chairman of Butterfly Conservation, S Wales. Paul has lived in Italy since 2003, where he is involved with numerous projects locally and nationally.
Paul was the winner of the portfolio award for the International Garden Photographer of the Year 2013 plus a Royal Photographic Society Gold Medal, has been a three times speaker at WildPhotos (2008, 2012 and 2014). He was also a judge for the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2015) competition and for numerous other international contests.
Lois Ferguson has managed specialist tours for over twenty five years for clients who demand the best - she makes sure everything works and runs smoothly and, by common consent, produces picnics to die for. Lois also manages tours for a specialist archaeological travel company and is an inspector for the Alastair Sawday's Special Places to Stay guides in Italy. Her years spent in Italy have given her an encyclopaedic knowledge of the country, its people, history and the food and wine. Although by training Lois is a professional musician (violinist), she also had her own business back in the UK creating specialist paint finishes and trompe l'oeil work. She is also a keen photographer with an eye for the unusual and a gift for finding the perfect viewpoint…in addition, she is a superb cook and keen gardener.
Lois and Paul have lived and worked in Italy since November 2003, where they found and renovated and old ruined farmhouse, living the whole year in Italy and doing most of the work themselves. It is set in a wild garden (their outdoor studio), within easy reach of a wide range of habitats from coastal to lake and river, through Mediterranean scrub and ancient beechwood to alpine heights over 2000m.
Paul & Lois usually work together as a team when leading tours. They are our hosts for our exciting visit to the Gargano peninsula in April each year. We expect to add further tours in 2022 which Paul & Lois will host for Greenwings, in Italy and possibly elsewhere.
Peter Eeles has been interested in butterflies from a very young age and, in 2002, created the acclaimed UK Butterflies website, with a mission of "Building a Community of Responsible Butterfly Enthusiasts in Britain & Ireland", along with its publishing arm, Dispar.
Peter is a passionate conservationist, and had a spell as chair of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight branch of Butterfly Conservation. He also created Butterfly Conservation's Garden Butterfly Survey website and, in 2016, was presented with the Marsh Award for the Promotion of Lepidoptera Conservation.
Peter summarised 20 years of study in his 2019 book "Life Cycles of British and Irish Butterflies", which has received many positive reviews. He is currently researching European butterflies, with a focus on those that are rare migrants to Britain and Ireland.
Job Titles:
- Designer, Editor of the Saxifrage Magazine
Razvan is a garden designer, editor of the Saxifrage Magazine (Saxifrage Society) and writes for various other gardening magazines. He also offers horticultural consultancy and has been giving talks to gardening groups and conferences for the past 5 years.
Razvan was fortunate to grow up in Transylvania in a town surrounded by vast woodlands and species-rich wildlife meadows, a fact that has influenced the way he designs and maintains gardens. His interest extends to looking for plants in the wild and leading wildlife tours where he shares his interest and knowledge of botany. So far, he has organised and led tours to Transylvania, Spain, Greece and Sweden.
Richard Taylor-Jones is a wildlife television presenter, film maker, cameraman and photographer. He regularly appears on BBC Countryfile, The One Show, Coast and Springwatch. He uses his expertise to capture images of some of the best of British Wildlife.
He first came to recognition with his "Cinematic Landscape Films" which he authored and shot for BBC Springwatch. These pieces were far more artistic and individual than the shows usual content and were widely appreciated and enjoyed by the viewing public, so Richard was commissioned to make them over several series.
His presence on the BBC has steadily grown since then. In 2014 he fronted his own half hour for BBC 1's Urban Jungle and was given the job on Countryfile to celebrate the BBC's Summer of Wildlife. In 2015 he was part of a three strong presenting team for BBC 1's Big Blue UK along with Hugh Fearnely Whittingstall and Lyndsay Chapman, which provided some of BBC Daytime's highest ratings.
For the last 3 years Richard has fronted his own hour long live morning show for BBC Autumnwatch Extra where viewers get to watch him at work in real time, commentating unscripted about the wildlife he finds. It has attracted a regular following and has been picked up as the highlight of the 2013 series. It's a challenging show as he never knows what will happen, and has to have the natural history knowledge to discuss everything and anything that turns up. What's more he has to be able to talk about nothing - no other presenter has ever talked about live images of thick fog on the Dumfriesshire coast for an hour and got away with it!!!!
Richard has been working in this field for almost 20 years and has an in-depth knowledge of both natural history and all forms of camerawork. He has worked with conservationists, members of the public and some of the industry's biggest names. His experience and deep appreciation of Britain's wilder landscapes and British wildlife make him the perfect host for some of our ‘British Wildlife Breaks'.
Victoria Hillman studied Zoology with Marine Zoology before going on to study for an MSc in Wildlife Biology and Conservation. Nature has been a passion from an early age with photography following closely behind as a way to show people what she was seeing and studying. Over the years she has developed her scientific and photographic skills specialising in macro photography championing the smaller species we have around us and the importance of responsible and ethical photography. More recently she has returned to her artwork, creating coloured pencil pieces from her own photographs and needle felted wildlife sculptures.
Victoria has been a judge for BWPA and BPOTY and is currently on the judging team for WildArtPOTY, she has contributed stills, video and articles to magazines, books and TV series including National Geographic and The BBC.
Victoria published her first book Forgotten Little Creatures in 2017 celebrating local wildlife through bringing together photography with scientific and historical facts and is now continuing the project and working on future books that will incorporate folklore and culture as well as her artwork.
Yasemin Konuralp studied music at a University in Ankara. She spent much of her time climbing many of the highest mountains in Turkey. Later, she started working as a trekking tour leader, after working as a music teacher for 8 years. Since 1997 she has been leading cultural, adventure, and botanical tours in Turkey. Yasemin makes regular Flora research trips, especially to the mountains of Turkey. Two new species that she found during her research were named after her - a reward for all her work and time in the field. Yasemin also write articles in various magazines and makes presentations on the botanical richness of Turkey in America and Europe upon request. As a result of her studies, her first book was published in 2013, focusing on the bulbous plants of Turkey.
Yiannis Theodoropoulos resides in Kastoria, Northern Greece. He is a field researcher, holding a degree in Environmental Sciences (Nottingham Trent University) and an MSc in Sustainable Management of Protected Areas (University of Ioannina). In the last 20 years he has participated in over 30 wildlife monitoring and research projects, with a particular soft spot for otter conservation.
An avid wildlife photographer, in recent years he has been leading many birdwatching and nature tours in Greece. When he isn't in the great outdoors you can find him working on his organic apple farm.