About the Guide.
Granada Wildlife is run by Mick Richardson who is originally from Albrighton, Shropshire. Whilst being a very beautiful county Shropshire has never had a reputation for being a great place for birding! Despite this I enjoyed around 30 years birding, botany and entomology in the county. During the late 1970s and early 1980s having a keen interest in birds led to me joining the Albrighton conservation group and also attending birding classes run by a local expert (Peter Challenor) in the nearby village of Codsall. Both these groups gave me the opportunity to meet up with some very keen birders and to make some very good friends, most of whom I am pleased to say I am still in contact with and spend time birding with them either here in Spain or back in the UK when I visit. During this time I started travelling around the UK visiting more and more new areas and seeing many new species. This was also when I began to get an interest in other aspects of wildlife including Orchids, Wildflowers, Butterflies, Moths and Dragonflies which made every trip out into the countryside more interesting as it still does.
From right to left: Myself, Roy and Lorraine Ingelston and Frank Dickson, Scilly Isles watching an American Golden Plover in 1985.
During the 1980s and 1990s I was also lucky enough to take a few birding holidays with this same group of friends, which included Sweden, Texas, Israel and numerous October weeks on the Isles of Scilly (still one of my Favorite locations for birding).
Frank Dickson and Myself (I am very sorry about the shorts!!!), coastal Texas 1990.
Although I arrived with a good knowledge of the Spanish Flora and Fauna due to the amount of time we had spent in Spain on holidays in the past, I did not know what to expect from the area we had decided to live in.
So the adventure began, I soon started to find some of the better wildlife sites near to the house by myself but then I was lucky enough to met some very knowledgeable Spanish naturalists and with their help I was soon seeing the best the area had to offer. 
Birding in the Tarifa area of Cadiz Province.
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In the 1980s I joined the Wild Flower Society and enjoyed many field trips with the very knowledgeable members which gave me a good grounding in the commoner species, while also adding a great number of the very rare plants and orchids during the trips. I also actively took part in several BTO surveys over many years and trained as a ringer but this slipped as I kept adding more and more aspects of wildlife to my hobby.
From left to right: Dave Jackson (Jacko), Garry Palmer, Myself, Frank Dickson, Lorraine and Roy Ingelston, ??????? and Geoff Ryder, Texas in 1990.
In 1984 I joined the Air Force Department Fire Service which some time later became the Defense Fire Services. This was an ideal job for a birder as the shift system meant I only worked 2 days and 2 night a week. This left plenty of time to spend in the field, this along with a very understanding but long suffering wife Jayne who I married in 1991 meant I was very lucky to have lots of time to spend on my love of nature. I worked mainly at RAF Cosford for the next 20 years with a few detachments to various bases including Akrotiri in Cyprus before leaving the service in 2004.
In 2005 with our grown up son Alan settled in Wales, Jayne and I made the decision to make the move out to Andalucía in Southern Spain. When we first arrived we stayed with friends Penny and John near Cacares. Their beautiful home gave us a base from which to search and find our new home. After much searching of different towns, villages and houses we finally found our current home which is set amongst the Olive groves between the towns of Huétor Tájar and Loja on the western edge of Granada Province. 
Second from the right, whilst on detatchment in Cyprus for a few months, got some good birding in there as well !!
I am still lucky enough to spend time with these same Spanish friends and together we are still finding new and interesting species some 14 years on.
Since moving to Spain I have been very pleased to spend many days out in the countryside locally and further afield with some wonderful people, some who have just come to see the general wildlife and to spend some time in this beautiful region and others who are hardened birders, botanists or entomologist who have wanted to see certain species or visit some of the best wildlife areas Spain has to offer and long may it continue. |
© of all Photographs and text on this web site and the blog belong to Mick Richardson and Granada Wildlife 2009/19.
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