Although his father, Martin, was a keen birder, Jonathan’s consuming interest during his early years was lawnmowers, and Martin would recount tales of family expeditions to local garden centres to document different makes and models. Birders will recognise, though, the ease with which such a precise and curious mind can transition from recording lawnmowers to counting Northern Lapwings Vanellus vanellus and, when the family moved to St Andrews, Fife, the allure of coastal birding soon cast a spell on Jonathan’s mind. Jonathan was a precocious teenage talent – deep thinking, intellectually curious, highly motivated and, yes, a touch quirky. ‘It’s a matter of vermiculations’, he told a middle-aged birder searching for a Green-winged Teal Anas carolinensis at Edenside.