This week Chris sits down with Nigel and Kayleigh Cheetham, the couple behind Backyard Aviary Adventures.

What started as a lockdown project, building an aviary and filming the golden pheasants, doves, and finches they raised in it, has since morphed into car camping, then a van conversion, and now full-blown twitching trips all over the UK chasing rare, scarce, and unusual visitors to our shores!

The conversation covers how each of them found birding, the highs and hazards of the twitching community, and where they stand on their second consecutive UK big year.

Episode Takeaways:

• How They Each Found Birding: Nigel rediscovered it in his late 20s after losing his dad to cancer and inheriting his camera; Kayleigh caught the bug on their honeymoon in Gambia, spotting a woodland kingfisher before he did.
• The Van Was Bought With Grief: After losing his sister to cancer at 44, Nigel and Kayleigh used money she left them to buy the van that now takes them all over the UK on rare bird chases.
• Why Twitching Feels Like a Countrywide Game of Where's Wally: For Nigel and Kayleigh, the pull of twitching isn't just the bird itself, it's the addictive thrill of the hunt, and the privilege of seeing something that isn't supposed to be there at all.
• 276 Species in a Single UK Year: Their 2025 big year total landed them at number eight nationally and this year, every rare bird they tick off doubles as a donation to Birds on the Brink Conservation Charity.

Episode Timestamps:

• 06:38 - Lockdown Aviary Origins
• 11:23 - How Birding Began
• 15:53 - Life Filming Together
• 17:56 - Channel Shift Twitching
• 29:27 - Big Twitch Experiences
• 30:58 - Big Year Reality Check
• 32:15 - Couple Rivalry and Solo Ticks
• 39:49 - Strategy for the Rest of Year
• 41:33 - YouTube Changes the Chase
• 43:13 - eBird Rankings vs Enjoyment
• 49:55 - Gambia Happy Place and Kingfishers

Important Links & Resources:

• Follow My Birding Life on Instagram
• Subscribe to My Birding Life on YouTube
• Follow Nigel and Kayleigh on Instagram
• Subscribe to Backyard Aviary Adventures on YouTube

This week Chris sits down with Sara Humphrey, aka Sussex Sara, a wildlife photographer, low-carbon birder, and one of the most distinctive voices in UK birdwatching right now. Sara doesn't drive. Every birding trip she takes, from the Cairngorms to the Lake District, is done by train, bus, or on foot, which means her whole approach to finding wildlife has had to become far more strategic than most birders ever need it to be.

Sara and Chris talk through what low-carbon birding actually looks like day to day, her mission to see and photograph some of Britain's hardest and most threatened species: turtle doves, ring ouzels, nightingales and why she doesn't carry binoculars at all. It's a conversation about patience, close observation, and choosing depth over ticking boxes.

Episode Takeaways:

• Life Without a Car: The Low-Carbon Birding Rule: Sara's approach to reducing her footprint without making the hobby unmanageable. Trains, buses, and long walks by default, with the occasional taxi when safety calls for it.
• What Turtle Doves Actually Need to Recover: Shallow water, the right seed in field margins, and thick hedgerow nesting habitat plus why logging sightings via BirdTrack for Operation Turtle Dove matters.
• Why Sara Never Carries Binoculars: As a photographer first, she found swapping between binoculars and camera cost her the shot every time, so she trained herself to read movement, body language, and calls instead.
• Letting the Animal Lead the Shot: Sara doesn't plan a composition and wait for wildlife to walk into it, she watches behaviour first and lets the animal dictate the photo.

Episode Timestamps:

• 03:45 - Low Carbon Birding
• 07:53 - Planning Car Free Trips
• 12:54 - Why Turtle Doves Declined
• 18:05 - Ring Ouzels And Hides
• 20:23 - No Binocular Birding
• 23:45 - Learning Calls And Nightingales
• 26:58 - Territory And Displays
• 30:35 - Behaviour Led Photography
• 34:35 - Wild Boar Close Call
• 36:05 - Terns And Flybys

Important Links & Resources:

• Follow My Birding Life on Instagram
• Subscribe to My Birding Life on YouTube
• Follow Sara on Instagram

Recorded live on the Whinchat stage at Global Bird Fair, this is the second episode we're publishing from that day, bringing Chris together with wildlife photographer Andy Green, a Kent-based creative known for his ultra-detailed close-up bird photography, co-host of The WildX Podcast alongside Adam Jukes and Mike Phelps, and founder of The Wild Den, an online community built around nature, creativity, and mental wellbeing. After turning 40, Andy set out to make wildlife his full-time work, and he's never looked back.

In this conversation, Chris and Andy dig into the New Forest moment that started it all, the "still point" theory behind Andy's most memorable wildlife encounters, the ongoing blur between birding and bird photography, and why Andy built The Wild Den to bring community and joy back into sharing creative work online. They round things off with a rapid-fire audience segment covering spark birds, dream destinations, and crucially, the best birding snacks.

Episode Takeaways:

• The New Forest Robin That Started It All: Andy's very first proper wildlife shoot in 2000, where a robin, a brambling, and a jay all landed within reach and hooked him for good.
• The "Still Point": The idea of a moment where everything goes quiet except you and the animal in front of you, illustrated by Andy's first encounter with an otter on Mull.
• Why The Wild Den Exists: Andy's answer to social media negativity and algorithm fatigue: a community space for chat, challenges, and in-person meetups, built to make birding and photography fun again.
• Content Creation Without the Pressure: Andy's advice for anyone hesitant to start posting: do it because you enjoy it, ignore the comparison trap, and expect it to take years, not overnight.

Episode Timestamps:

• 03:03 - Origin Story
• 03:55 - Making Ordinary Pop
• 06:25 - Hide Versus Wild
• 09:33 - Nature as Reset
• 10:48 - Still Point Moments
• 12:35 - Birding Meets Cameras
• 15:00 - Why The Wild Den
• 18:27 - Group Walk Dynamics
• 19:41 - Building a Safe Community
• 24:26 - Memories Over Metrics
• 28:29 - Dream Trips and Lifers

Important Links & Resources:

• Follow My Birding Life on Instagram
• Subscribe to My Birding Life on YouTube
• Follow Andy on Instagram
• The Wild Den