About us

Simon Woolley was born and brought up on the Wirral, within sight of the Dee Estuary and Hilbre Island. He developed a passion for birds early in life, and has more recently diversified into lepidoptera, odonata, orchids and grasshoppers.

As a former Geography teacher, he had nice long school holidays in which to take overseas trips: now, he works as a wildlife tour guide, and has even more time for personal trips with Julia too!

In 2005, he cycled over 3000 miles within Hampshire in pursuit of a new county non-motorized year list, ending up with 217 species of birds, and raising £2000+ for Sri Lanka tsunami relief. In 2006/7, he undertook a much less carbon neutral quest for 1000+ birds in a twelve-month period - in nine countries! Final score: 1027.

He is a domestically-renowned chef and a green-fingered garden guru.

Julia Casson's interest in wildlife began in her early years in coastal Tanzania, and developed on her return to England, where she has lived in Kent, Norfolk, Sussex, the Thames Valley and the Cotswolds, before moving to Hampshire in 1998.

She is a former English teacher and SpLD teacher/assessor, and is also an Iyengar yoga teacher (and thus has the flexibility [ho ho] for travel), a musician (mainly double bass), writer of magical/supernatural Young Adult books, and an eternal student (Environmental Science and Folklore most recently!).

Together, we are very lucky to live in the glorious New Forest, and have masses of wildlife right on our doorstep (garden bird list 120 species and counting!).

We have always had a menagerie of animals in our care (16 cats and three dogs over the years). We currently share our lives with the wonderful, gentle Raffi the collie, his stepbrother Axl Wagglebottom The Destroyer (who is also a dog - specifically a sprocker spaniel), and three cats: Ozymandias the Floof-monster, and brother and sister Hector the Magnificent and HRH Little Miss Verity. See their pictures below, along with a fabulous cartoon of ALL our animals (pre H&V) by our talented and dear friend Joey Draper - visit his website/Instagram for amazing art (including commissions) and books.

Speaking of Joey, shortly after lockdown we finally re-embraced our love of hard rock and metal, and there's been no stopping us since! First among equals must be Joey's band South of Salem, but equally massive shout-outs go here to Black Lakes, Apriori, Juliet's Not Dead, Florence Black and The Virginmarys. We've combined our love of music with travel, and have journeyed to Bucharest (Guns N' Roses), Helsinki (Metallica) and Belfast (South of Salem supporting W.A.S.P.) for more-or-less debauched musical weekenders! (We did go and see Blyth's Reed Warbler, Icterine Warbler and so on in Helsinki as well...would've been rude not to...)