When a pair of rare birds nested in County Durham, they brought crowds of visitors to he site and overnight success to a former engineer's new business.

Frances Griss reports.

Success for a new business came flying in on the wings of a bee eater.

Kevin Spindloe, 44, was an engineer who lacked job satisfaction. Looking for greater enjoyment in his life, Kevin decided to turn his bird watching hobby into a new career.

Shortly afterwards, County Durham's first pair of nesting bee eaters moved in to their nest site at Bishop Middleham quarry and Kevin became their guardian, successfully protecting the nest from egg collectors until the brood fledged. Since then he has not looked back.

As a freelance ornithologist, his skills are in demand to conduct environmental assessments and to protect some of the area's rarest breeding birds.

This summer, Kevin was warden of the Little Tern colony at Crimdon Dene, which has suffered badly in the past. This year, with co-operation from dog walkers, horse riders and other beach users, he protected the colony well enough for it to raise 55 chicks to fledging. Another chick fledged from a site at South Gare.

Kevin's interest in birds started when he was a child and grew as he became more involved with local clubs. He says: "The first thing that got me into watching birds was when they released some red crested pochard at Rossmere Park in Hartlepool. I used to go down to watch these birds with bright red heads. My father also had a thing for birds and used to watch the birds in the garden.

"I didn't take it up seriously until the mid 80s. I reached a level where you can be self-taught and looked for some inspiration and mentoring if you like."

First at Teesmouth Bird Club then at Durham Bird Club, Kevin, from Darlington, found friends with a similar interest and joined them on research, helping ring birds and conduct surveys.

At the beginning of 2002 he made his escape. "Something in my head was screaming to get out of the rat race. I was just standing on the factory floor wondering 'What am I doing here?'"

Within a short time of Kevin setting up his business, Cygnus Ornithological Services, he was right in the middle of one of the most exciting birding events in the country for years.

It has been 50 years since European bee eaters nested in this Britain. Then, in the summer of 2002, a pair turned up in County Durham out of the blue, decided to set up home in Bishop Middleham quarry, excavated a nest in double quick time and laid their eggs.

Durham Wildlife Trust and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds went into overdrive to protect the bee eaters from disturbance and from egg collectors who would jump at such a rare opportunity. They needed someone there to protect the nest and Kevin got the job.

He spent weeks watching the pair, getting to know their habits and their characters, watching the dramas of their life as they raised their young.

He thinks the female was never in tiptop health because she only foraged for food within a short distance of the nest, while the male was spotted hunting over a mile away. At one point she was found exhausted on the ground and then disappeared for hours. There were fears she was dead but she returned to nest duty a short time later.

Bird watchers flocked from all over the country to see the bee eaters, and they all had to be catered for with information, car parking and still be kept far enough from the nest.

Kevin says: "It was certainly an experience. I don't think I was prepared for how big it was going to be."

When the young birds finally fledged it was the end of an amazing start to Kevin's new career, and he had made many contacts along the way.

Developers, individuals applying for planning permission and companies are among Kevin's clients, but this summer another species of bird was in need of protection, the little tern.

For several years these rare birds have been trying to breed on the North-East coast with varying success. Their main problem is that they lay well camouflaged eggs on pebble beaches, which are then trodden on by visitors.

Despite legal protection, the birds still suffer so Kevin was faced with an interesting set of problems as warden of the colony at Crimdon.

He says: "On the back of our success with the bee eaters we had the option to close it down and not have anybody come, but we decided to let everybody come, and 22,000 people did."

By getting the police on side, local people soon learned that it was an offence to disturb the colony and the police would come knocking on the doors of people who did not pay attention.

Surprisingly, few bird watchers went to the beach; instead it was people with dogs, horses and motorbikes, who could wipe out the colony without even noticing, who were brought on side by a mixture of education and application of the law.

In past years the colony has had limited success, but this year 55 young birds took to the skies, more than one for each nesting pair.

Just as the birds spread their wings and flew away at the end of summer, Kevin is spreading his own wings and launching another branch of his business - running bird watching holidays around Britain and Europe. He is hoping to buy a house in Spain as a base for tours, where a local bird watcher is keen to be a guide.

Few career changes could have been more diverse, but for Kevin, making his hobby into his livelihood has been simply a change for the better.