My name is David Tolliday and I live in Cheshire, England. I have been interested in wildlife for as long as I can remember. One of my first wildlife memories is of a flock of lapwings in a field at Cuckmere in Sussex when I was about ten years old. I was absolutely amazed by these beautiful birds and they still remain one of my favourite species. How sad it is that these birds have been in such decline over recent years.

My first ever wildlife photograph was of a chaffinch taken with my dad's Fujica camera at the age of 13 (I won't admit to how long ago that was but it is a very distant memory!). Looking through the camera viewfinder it looked like the bird filled the frame, however when the film came back the bird was hardly visible in the picture. I knew I had to improve as a wildlife photographer.

Several years later I was given my first pair of binoculars. Parked in the car park at Cuckmere, overlooking the river, I put the binoculars to my eyes for the first time and the very first bird I saw was a kingfisher sitting on a branch. It dived into the water, returned with a small fish, banged the fish against a branch and then ate it. What an introduction to using binoculars!

The most pleasure I get from wildlife is just sitting, watching and listening. To me there is nothing better than being on a cliff or an island surrounded by seabirds, with perhaps puffins looking at you inquisitively and making their lovely laughing calls, or sitting in a hide, preferably with camera in hand waiting to see what may arrive in front of you.

This is not a website of rarity photographs, mainly because I am not that interested in dashing around the country to get what may only be a brief and poor view of the bird, although I know a lot of people get great pleasure from this. However, this website concentrates on the wildlife that I enjoy watching. To me one of the joys of wildlife photography is being close to the subject and watching its behaviour. I once photographed a small wader roost on Hilbre Island in the Dee estuary. There was a dunlin which kept falling asleep. What do you think happened? I'll give you a clue - stand on one leg, close your eyes and go to sleep, what happens to you?

However, whilst I am primarily a wildlife photographer, I am also a member of Macclesfield Camera Club and enjoy all forms of photography so this website is not just about wildlife but other subjects and places I have photographed.

More recently I have started taking images of the night sky.

I hope you enjoy looking at the photographs. If you would like to see a list of the talks I give please look at the dropdown menu under 'About'

Thank you for visiting.

David