John Callion

His 25-year study of the European stonechat and his findings on the Eurasian dotterel have revealed much previously unknown information about both species.

In an article in The Times entitled Stonechats' secrets revealed, the British naturalist, author and former Man Booker Prize judge Derwent May hailed Callion's findings and revelations as 'splendid contributions to knowledge', and said: "He has found 1,300 nests and put coloured rings on the legs of numerous nestlings to follow the story of their lives...Callion describes, as never before, the light-hearted way in which the female takes her incubation duties at first, coming off the eggs every hour and stopping to preen casually, before going back.

However, she becomes more and more frenetic, and by the time the eggs are about to hatch, she is incubating for three hours unbroken and coming off to feed for only three minutes..."[5] In 2022 Callion published research on nest site selection from further studies of the European stonechat.

[9] This 125th Anniversary edition also featured Callion's article on the Eurasian reed warbler written with Pete Davies.

[10] Recent publications are based on the extensive data and observation Callion and his team have collected over 6 decades in Cumbria, this research has detailed the behaviour of several species over a long period.