Yesterday Mike wrote a great post explaining the thinking behind opening up 10,000 Birds into a collaborative blog. In that post he said some extremely flattering things about me, including that “I’m sure most of my readers know Charlie Moores”…Well, I’m not so sure about that, so before I start ‘normal’ blogging how’s about a few brief sentences explaining who I am and why I’m fit to rub shoulders with the 10,000 Birds team?

Well, I’m a Brit, living in Wiltshire, England with my partner and our toddler daughter “The Pixie”. I’m an irascible forty-something or an adrenaline-fuelled Peter Pan depending on how good the birding is, a passionate conservationist, and a veggie. I’ve been working for an airline for a LONG time - or I’ve been paid to go round the world birding by an airline for a LONG time depending on whether I’m talking to airline management or 10,000 Birds readers - and I’m about a third of the way through the 10,000 Birds aim of seeing - well, 10,000 birds.

I ran my own blog and kept up a non-stop flood of posts (some amusing, some serious) for about four years. Time has come for a better way of doing things though, and - as I close my old blog down - I’ll be transferring a mass or Reviews, Trip Reports, Conservation stories, and general comments onto the 10,000 Birds server over the next few weeks (so keep an eye on the relevant sections as I’ll be backdating them rather than flooding the homepage with stories of “what I did on my holidays in 2003″!).

Anything more? Sure, but why not read future posts - right here at 10,000 Birds?