Hugh Harrop
Hugh founded Shetland Wildlife in 1992 after spells working for Fair Isle Bird Observatory, the Shetland Oil Terminal Environmental Advisory Group and the RSPB. He is regarded as one of Shetland's top birders and naturalists, is a regular contributor to several birdwatching magazines and journals and author of Where to Watch Birds in Shetland. Although Hugh's main interests are birds and their identification, he also has a passion for all other aspects of natural history, especially whales and dolphins and Polar Bears! Hugh is also a feature writer for several European natural history magazines, an award-winning professional photographer whose work has been widely published in journals and newspapers throughout Europe and North America, photographic consultant to the journals Scottish Birds and Seabird, a member of the Shetland Bird Club rarities and general committee, a former committee member of Scottish Wildlife Trust and a founder member of both Organisation Cetacea (ORCA) and the Shetland Sea Mammal Group! When not working in Shetland, Hugh guides our European overseas tours or travels extensively with his wife Michelle and daughter Cerys to exciting wildlife-filled and toddler-friendly destinations!

David Fairhurst
David's life-long passion for birding and wildlife has led him to follow a varied career in conservation for the last 16 years. Prior to moving to Shetland he was based at Minsmere in Suffolk, where he worked on several projects including the role of Senior Research Assistant for the RSPB's Bittern monitoring programme. Other posts in the UK have included stints with University of East Anglia studying Woodlarks in Dorset, habitat management at Abernethy Forest and species protection on Anglesey. His career has also taken him much further afield, undertaking research in Jordan and Israel and also working to restore fragile island ecosystems in the Seychelles. David is no stranger to tricky bird ID; he was a member of the Suffolk rarities committee for five years, and Suffolk's County Recorder for three years. David first visited Shetland in 1987 and now lives here with his partner Katie - a former warden of Noss National Nature Reserve - and baby daughter Evelyn.

Michelle Harrop
Michelle originates from British Columbia, Canada. After gaining her degree in Geography at the University of Colorado, she worked in the North American eco-tourism industry for several years before moving to Shetland in 1999 - after meeting Hugh on a Polar Bear trip in Churchill! Her frequent travels in search of wildlife have taken her to locations such as Southern and Northern Europe, Antarctica, Botswana, Ecuador, Galapagos and the high Arctic regions of Canada. As well as being a mother to little Cerys (who got Killer Whale on her list when she was two weeks old!), Michelle is our office manager and the driving force behind the successful day-to-day operations of Shetland Wildlife. When not working in our office, Michelle, Hugh and little Cerys escape Shetland and travel to far-flung corners of the earth in search of exciting wildlife.

Jon Dunn
Originally from Cornwall, Jon grew up birding and working on conservation projects in Dorset's Blackmoor Vale before moving to Kent to study agriculture, where he developed a keen interest in butterflies and flowering plants. He first visited Shetland in 1992, and after returning every year for further holidays he finally moved here permanently in 2003. Jon works for the local council as their agricultural officer, a job that takes him the length and breadth of Shetland and to some of the isles' most remote and beautiful locations. He lives on the island of Whalsay, where he runs a small croft and is passionate about finding his own migrant birds. Jon has travelled extensively in the UK and Europe looking for birds, butterflies and orchids.

Judd Hunt
Judd lives in Cardiff and is employed as a manager within the Civil Service. Judd has been an avid birdwatcher since 1979 and is a founder member of the Glamorgan Bird Club. Since his first trip abroad, to Canada in 1986, Judd has travelled much of the globe in search of new and exciting species and lists anywhere in South America, India and Europe as his favourite destinations. He developed a keen interest in cetaceans in the mid-1980s when he used to sail across the Irish Sea with Hugh in search of seabirds and still clearly remembers his first encounters with Fin Whales and Orcas! Since 2000, Judd has worked for our sister business, The Company of Whales and has lost count of the number of people he has guided across his favourite piece of ocean, the Bay of Biscay! Judd has also worked as a guide for Shetland Wildlife since 2002 and has travelled extensively within Shetland, Spain, France and Poland in this capacity. Although widely travelled, Judd still dreams of visiting the Antarctic Peninsula and the islands in the South Atlantic, hopefully as a guide for Shetland Wildlife or the Company of Whales!

Dr Jonathan Wills
Jonathan has been birdwatching and boating around the shores of Shetland since childhood holidays. Born in Oxford to a Lerwick mother, he has lived in Shetland for most of his life. Jonathan is an honorary warden of Noss National Nature Reserve, a former boatman to the Muckle Flugga Lighthouse, and wrote his Edinburgh University Ph.D. on the historical geography of Shetland. He was inspired to take up wildlife guiding by the late Bobby Tulloch, who taught him much of what he knows about seabirds, seals and otters - and how to get close to them. In the winter and in bad weather he works as a journalist and broadcaster.

Harri Taavetti
Harri hails from Oulu, Finland and co-guides our adventures to both his homeland and northern Norway. Harri's wildlife career started in 1990 at the age of 14 and since 1997, he has been recognised as one of Finland's top birders and guides. As well as being a freelance naturalist guide, he also works as a bird survey specialist and is the Chairman of his local records committee. Harri is a keen and extremely creative photographer and in 2007 he secured two top-ten placings in the British Birds Bird Photograph of the Year (unforgivably beating Hugh!). Like most of our guides, pen-to-paper activities are an important aspect of the job and Harri has written several papers and identification articles for journals, magazines and books. Overseas travel has also featured in Harri's career and he has visited great birding destinations like Israel, Hungary, Spain, India and China.

Martin Kelsey OBE
Martin lives with his wife, Claudia, and son Patrick in Spain running their superb guest house (which we stay at on our trip to Extremadura!) and enjoys showing visitors its wealth of birds and other wildlife, helping out on bird survey work, as well as looking after their garden and olive grove (and has an impressive garden list to prove it!). Martin started birding as a small boy in Essex in the sixties and since then has birded in five continents. Whilst studying ecology at the University of East Anglia, he took part in expeditions to the Caribbean and Kenya and then went on to the Edward Grey Institute for Field Ornithology in Oxford to complete a doctorate on Marsh Warblers. He subsequently spent three years studying birds in the Amazon rain forest with the British Ornithologists' Union, where he met Claudia. Returning to the UK, he worked for BirdLife International for five years, before joining Save the Children, spending four years living in Colombia and then four years in India, as well as a short spell in Ethiopia. He was awarded the OBE in 2001. A founder member and first Chairman of the Neotropical Bird Club, he has been an active member of bird clubs and societies everywhere he has lived.

Dylan Walker
Dylan Walker is a professional field naturalist, conservationist and tour guide. Having completed a degree in Ecology, Dylan has been involved in a wide variety of conservation projects working with, amongst others, Koala Bears, Loggerhead Turtles and Laurel Pigeons. During the last few years, he has conducted cetacean and seabird surveys throughout the north east Atlantic from the Faroe Islands to the Canaries, and taken part in research projects on Pilot Whales and Bottlenose Dolphins. He has been heavily involved in whale watching and cetacean research in the Bay of Biscay since 1996, helping to set up ORCA (Organisation Cetacea) and co-ordinating sightings data collected by a network of volunteer observers. More recently, Dylan set up UK Cetnet, the country's first inter-active email discussion group on cetaceans and he is currently finishing off a new field guide to cetaceans in the European Atlantic. A combined appetite for wildlife and travel has taken Dylan to much of Europe, North Africa and Australia. His friendly personality, good sense of humour and unquenchable enthusiasm for nature make him an excellent and highly popular staff naturalist guide.

David Tipling
David is one of the world's top wildlife photographers and guides our photography trips here in Shetland. A keen naturalist from a young age, David established his own picture library Windrush Photos in 1993 and his work has been published in hundreds of publications world-wide. His incredible shots will be familiar to travellers who read BBC Wildlife, RSPB Birds, Birdwatching, Country Life and Audubon magazine. David is author or co-author of several books including The Birdwatcher's Guide to Digital Photography, Where to Watch Birds in Britain and Ireland and Bird Photography: Choosing the Best Destinations, Planning a Trip, Taking Great Photographs. When not photographing wildlife, David is an active sportsman with a passion for tennis and skiing.

Hywel Maggs
Hywel has had a keen interest in wildlife since an early age and has travelled widely to fulfil his passion. After graduating in Environmental Science in 1992, Hywel worked as a shorebird warden for the National Trust in Northumberland. During this time he also played as a semi-professional musician with a band that toured extensively both in the UK and abroad. In 1998 he took up post as a warden at Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve and Bird Observatory where his work focussed on shorebirds and day-to-day management of a NNR. Following two years on the shores of the Wash, Hywel migrated north to Fair Isle for two seasons of rare migrants and seabirds. Here, he fine-tuned his knowledge on both and has been returning during spring and autumn ever since. Hywel now works for the RSPB in East Scotland as Corn Bunting Officer. Based in Aberdeen, he works wherever the species still exists in Scotland. Travel is still very much part of his life and during recent years, Hywel has been on trips to New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates and a number of European destinations.

Lynn Duncan
Lynn has lived in the south Mainland of Shetland all her life and feels privileged to stay in an area that has so much to offer. Over the years she has learnt much about Shetland's rich cultural heritage, folklore and traditions from her work in the Shetland library. A significant amount of her time is spent walking to the remoter parts of the isles and Lynn especially loves to share this experience with others whenever the chance arises. For her there are so many different ways to see Shetland - whether it is from behind the camera, rowing in a yoal, walking beaches or cliff tops, it doesn't matter. So long as it's outside!

Rob Still
Rob has had a keen interest in wildlife since childhood. Rob has travelled all over the world in search of wildlife, but has a particular fondness for South America. After obtaining a degree in Ecology from UEA he formed his own graphic design company, producing material for conservation bodies such as Butterfly Conservation, ORCA, and The Neotropical and Oriental Bird Clubs. Rob's artwork has appeared in such diverse places as a British Birds front cover and the Trinidad and Tobago High Commission in Nigeria! More recently Rob has been the driving force behind WildGuides - a publishing company specialising in wildlife guides that help raise funds for conservation. He has designed and co-authored books on Galápagos and British butterflies. He is responsible for co-ordinating both Shetland Wildlife's and The Company of Whales brochures and media design and is looking forward to some exciting new publishing projects with Hugh and David over the next year or so!

Laughton Johnston
Laughton is the author of A Naturalist's Shetland, the only comprehensive account of Shetland's natural history from its geological beginnings to the present day. He is also the author of Scotland's Nature in Trust, written in association with the National Trust for Scotland on the environmental management of their island and mountain properties. At present he is writing a book for Scottish Natural Heritage, to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve. He has an excellent knowledge of Shetland's wildlife, as well as its history and culture, being a half-Shetlander himself and familiar with the islands since childhood. From 1969 until he took early retirement four years ago he has worked for Scottish Natural Heritage. During that period among other things, he was responsible for Shetland and Orkney for 6 years and the island of Rum on the West Coast of Scotland. Because of his love of the islands he has recently renovated a cottage in Sandness where he now spends half the year wildlife guiding and writing.