This article features Dusty Gedge an actor and circus performer, who had been an avid birdwatcher since the age of seven. In 1997, a conservation officer in Deptford, south-east London, recruited him to do a birdwatching survey for a creekside regeneration project. The black redstart is protected under the 1981 Protected Species Act, by which it is an offence to intentionally disturb a bird's nest-building or caring for eggs or young. At the crack of dawn, Dusty would find himself visiting sites being developed in brownfield regeneration projects, where the bird was known to nest. Since 2004, Dusty has served as an expert on a panel for green roofs at the London Plan, trying to get the message across about the multiple benefits of green roofs.