You might know Alan Todd from his years working at the National Trust listed Grossmann House, or maybe from his long connection with the Morpeth Museum.
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But chances are more recently you'll know him as the man who played two minutes of Grey Crowned Babbler bird call recordings at the last council meeting - firstly the keeping in touch call, then the warning call, and finally the all's well call.
It was Mr Todd's last-ditch, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to get council to consider greater wildlife corridors in their latest Thornton North development.
It should be pointed out that this was not Mr Todd's first unsuccessful attempt to sway council.
He's been at it since 2003 and, in his own words, council hasn't budged an inch in all that time.
So he was hardly optimistic when he approached them this time.
His babbler approach wasn't his wackiest either. That would have to go to his 2018 effort when he did a Monty Python skit to highlight the large swathe's of trees being cut down.
So, Alan Todd ... concerned citizen or a pain in council's posterior?
"I'd hate to think of myself as a pain," he said.
"The councillors know me - the Morpeth Museum is a council building - and it's not like I'm complaining all the time, but I believe some things are worth fighting for."
Like his beloved babbler family.
"I originally lived in Metford until the bush was built out, and then I moved to Ashtonfield until the bush was built out, and there was so much wildlife there at one stage," he said.
"Then when I moved to Chisholm I discovered the babblers ... they're endangered and are fantastic little birds.
"But the thing with them is that they won't fly across open spaces, so you'll never see them too far from trees.
Related content: Babblers have their say in council
Bird calls in the "So it's vital that wildlife corridors are kept available for them."
It needs to be said that council, in approving the development, was given the all-clear about the green corridor - "one north-south and one east-west" - from Matthew Prendergast, council's Group Manager Planning and Environment, who said it met environmental requirements.
Mr Todd is clearly frustrated about a message that seems not to resonate with council.
"Back in 2003 when I was arguing against the Thornton North development plan, it was a different time," he explained.
"A lot of the area was natural bush, but back then no-one really batted an eyelid about environmental issues.
"That has changed today, but it seems to me that while that may be so, as a community we still don't seem to have a voice.
"We go to council, go through the process, but after that we have nothing to show for it."
Mr Todd is also extremely concerned at how developers can have a plan knocked back, but simply go back again and again until it is finally approved. How, by sheer attrition, they can get their way.
"Honestly, I'm not sure it's not too late for Maitland already," he said.
"We have developments going up all over the place.
"But everywhere there is green space, you're going to get someone who wants to develop it.
"They'll go back again and again until it is approved. It's all one way. But the trouble with that is that once it's developed, there's no going back. That's it for the community - another green space they're never going to have."
On top of that, he says, building blocks are getting smaller while houses are getting bigger.
"People used to be encouraged to keep any old trees with tree hollows as habitat for wildlife.
"But with smaller blocks and bigger houses, there's no room for trees anymore. They're all gone, so that's another connectIon for wildlife we've lost. And added to that is that houses have to be bushfire proof and trees in the yard are seen as potential fire hazards."
He pauses for a second, in thought.
"Do you know the word solastalgia?" he asks.
I tell him I don't.
"It's basically the emotional distress caused by environmental change," he continues.
"There was a wonderful letter from Margerete Ritchie from Brandy Hill in the Newcastle Herald a month or two back - hang on I'll get you the date ... it was May 21, a Saturday - and she wrote of seeing all these trees disappearing for a development along Raymond Terrace Road.
"In the letter she said the entire hillside has been stripped of every tree and that 'solastalgia does not even come close to my distress'.
"I guess I'm feeling a bit of solastalgia too."