Stuart was born and raised in Orkney and has resided in the county all his life. He was introduced to raptor monitoring from an early age and has been monitoring raptors in Orkney for approaching 50yrs.

Stuart was instrumental in the setting up of the Orkney Raptor Study Group in 2004, and has been the groups chair since 2018, he is also the group’s data curator and species coordinator for all species the group monitors. Although Stuart monitors all raptors, Owls and Ravens in Orkney, his main studies are on Hen Harrier, Merlin, Buzzard and Short eared Owl. Stuart is also the national coordinator of the Hen Harrier winter roost counts in Scotland. He has been monitoring winter Hen Harrier roosts since the early 1980’s. After a busy spring and summer monitoring the breeding birds, nothing gives him greater pleasure than sitting out on a darkening hillside watching these beautiful birds come into roost.