Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
I am currently working as a Senior Ornithologist, specialising in EIA for windfarms. I also completed an internship with the RSPB as an Intern/Warden picking up practical skills in conservation habitat management. I have enjoyed helping to maintain and improve some amazing reserves and participating in wildlife surveys. I am a skilled ecological proffesional with a strong work ethic with sharp communication and IT skills looking to develop my career and diversify my work portfolio. I am a recent ecology MSc graduate with 3 years of proffesional ecological work experience in UK ornithology and some bat and GCN working experience. I am an accomplished UK birdwatcher with excellent audio and visual recognition skills, recently attested by high grades in HiNT's online certified tests. I have a youtube channel with a number of videos on methods for distance and height estimation and semi-automated counting from photographs for ornithological survey. I am a succinct and unambiguous communicator with a flair for the written word, excellent typing skills and a high level of computer literacy. I am: .... interested to learn more about how practical mitigation efforts can improve our environment and how political agendas influence the skills that are required to grow a secure and stimulating career in ecology. .... happy to discuss my understanding of different kinds of field working regimes to HR recruiters who would like to know more about the specifics skills and dispositions that are required in such roles. .... pleased to invite discussion with ecologists and ecological field workers who are interested in any of the subjects of the essays and spreadsheets which I have made accessible or on any other topic which they believe will be of mutual interest.
Working on wildlife survey and mitigation of development.
> Infrastructure maintenance work such as path creation, fencing repairs, bench placement > Wildlife survey including mapping territories of lowland birds from calls and songs, wetland bird surveys, monitoring of Bittern, Black-Necked Grebe and Spoonbill on breeding grounds, regular moth-trapping and identification. >Habitat management including water level adjustments, control of invasive plant species with herbicides and by hand-pulling and mink trapping. >I have lead work groups and delivered a Dawn Chorus Walk and talk. >Have contributed blogs to the RSPB website and my photographs have been used by the media.
Assisting on the Corn Bunting project by inputting habitat data into Merlin, the RSPB's bespoke GIS software. Also helped to assemble pictorial lists of birds for farmers engaged in conservation schemes using Excel VBA to organise the information. Helping out the Northern Scotland branch based at Strathbeg by helping to build and improve paths, participating in bird counts etc.
Conducting primarily ornithological surveys for Environmental Impact Assessment.