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When I began birding in the mid-1970s you could count the number of celebrity birders not on one hand but on one finger, and that finger belonged to Robert Dougal, a gentleman newsreader of advanced years who dressed soberly and conducted himself with impeccable manners - not the type of personality to became a role model for us young aspiring birders. And then, out of the celebrity-birder vacuum appeared a long-haired and bearded man who was one third of a cult TV comedy programme, who possessed street cred AND was a proper birder. His name was Bill Oddie.

To be a schoolboy of a certain age in the early to mid-seventies meant that there were two big television highlights each week that were not to be missed. They were 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' and 'The Goodies'. Both were slightly subversive, off-the-wall and created by Oxbridge graduates that had turned comedy into not just an art form, not only full of social comment but infused it with an intelligence that sometimes went above the heads of us early teenagers. 'The Goodies', the vehicle that was partly driven by Bill Oddie, was less subversive than 'Python' and possibly more accessible, but was no less effective in drawing vast television audiences. The episode that captured our collective imagination the most, and had the playgrounds across Britain reliving the following morning was called 'Kitten Kong' (1971) and featured a giant kitten climbing onto and knocking over the Post Office Tower in London. It was iconic. It turned Graham Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie into household names and ensured that their comedy series ran until 1982. But the latter harboured another life - that of a truly top birder.

When I began birding in 1974 I was already well aware of Bill Oddie, but didn't know of his birding interests. I soon was though. 'The Goodies' was peppered with hidden birding references that would be lost on most viewers but added to the fun for us 'in the know'. Apparently Bill would often suggest that any filming away from the studio should take place in areas good for birding so that, between takes, he could slope off and get some birding in. September 1979 he had taken the film crew down to Portland Bill and during one of his breaks discovered a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, a bird that I saw the following morning - thanks Bill!

He wasn't just a birder - he was an exceptional birder. Not just a finder of rare birds but a repeat finder of rare birds. His knowledge of identification was top notch. He was a birder that just happened to be a celebrity, not a celebrity that also happened to do a bit of birding. A comedian, a writer, a musician, a broadcaster - and all that before you add ornithologist to that list.

In 1980 he wrote 'Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book' an alternative look at the birding scene, full of humour and truisms, the first subversive take on what was still largely thought of as a pastime for nerds and vicars. It paved the way for such birding fanzines as 'Not BB'. This was followed in 1983 by his autobiographical 'Gone Birding' which is a delight from the first page to its last. Also of note was a compilation of his many columns published in the magazine Birdwatch called 'Gripping Yarns' which I must have read a dozen times and have mercilessly plundered for blog post ideas.

Bill loved bird observatories. He regularly stayed at Fair Isle and was known to frequent Portland Bill and Dungeness, even becoming the President of Sandwich Bay. I met him a few times at the last two establishments mentioned but was mindful of not intruding on his privacy - the following conversation I had with him was a close up and personal as I got with him. Are you ready?

Me: "Hi!"
Bill: "Hello"
Me: "There are a few Whinchats further along"
Bill: "Thanks"

This morning it was announced that Bill had passed away. Apart from us old timers there would have been many viewers of the original BBC 'Springwatch' series and his 'Birding with Bill Oddie' programmes that would have felt as if they had lost a mate.

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