Mike Ilett has been an active member of the Herts Bird Club Committee since 1998. His expert local knowledge of Hertfordshire and its habitats is widely recognised within the bird watching community. He is a recognised expert in all birds but has a particular specialism in  raptors and gulls.

He was born in Hertford and bird-watched since the age of 12.  He was Hertfordshire Bird Recorder from 2000-2005 (during which time he also sat on the HNHS management committee) and has been Secretary of the Hertfordshire Rare Birds Panel (part of the Herts Bird Club) since 2011. He has contributed the Herts Rare Bird Panel Report to the Herts Bird Report annually 

Mike was co-author (with Ken Smith, Chris Dee and Jack Fearnside) of Birds of Hertfordshire, published by Herts Natural History Society in 2015. He gives freely of his time helping to educate others in the birds of Hertfordshire, providing advice and guidance about their identification and status.

He has given talks at  the Herts Bird Club Conference, most recently in 2023, giving an update on the 2015 publication, the birds of Hertfordshire. His expertise in gulls and raptors has led to requests to speak at local group meetings of the RSPB. In addition to speaking at the pre-Covid Hertfordshire Festivals of Wildlife he also shared his passion for educating others by staffing the Herts Bird Club stand to show and interpret birds. He was the keynote speaker at a fundraising evening for Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust in 2014, talking about birds of prey.

During his career with Tesco, Mike helped  to establish a Peregrine viewing area to enable people to see and appreciate the first breeding birds in Hertfordshire at Welwyn Garden City. In a voluntary capacity, and in collaboration with Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, Mike also carries out bird surveys for private landholders, enabling them to better understand their land and makes recommendations of how to manage it to benefit birds.

Citation prepared by Tim Hill