He is a British Ecologist and chairs the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. He has volunteered for the RSPBs Operation Osprey at Loch Garten. He served as demonstrator in the Zoology department at the University of Oxford. His main interest has been in impact of global environment change on the population of birds and insects. He played a pivotal role in the establishment of The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. He shared the Japan Prize for Science and Technology for Conservation of Biodiversity in 2004 "for observational, experimental and theoretical achievements for the scientific understanding and conservation of Biodiversity".