Overview

I am an Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter and a Principal Conservation Scientist at the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science. I develop and undertake a wide range of research, currently on Afro-Palaearctic migrants, bird diet, predation and ecotoxicology. As an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter I conduct collaborative research utilising a 69-year hole-nesting bird dataset. I set up and run PiedFly.Net, a citizen science project that coordinates hole-nestling bird monitoring and related science (www.piedfly.net).

Qualifications

PhD, Conservation Biology, June 2008
‘Spatial patterns and population dynamics of a reintroduced Mauritius kestrel (Falco punctatus) population’.
University of Reading, Centre for Agri-environmental Research, UK

MSc, Biological Science Research, August 2002
‘Beech fruiting and the growth of an introduced population of the Edible dormouse (Glis glis) in England’.
Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

Career

RSPB Principal Conservation Scientist (2011 – present).

Research posts; avian biodiversity hotspots (2003-2004) and breeding phenology in wild birds (2008), Imperial College at Silwood Park.

Field biologist; Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (1996-2000) and University of Bristol (2000).

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Research

Research interests

Main interests:

• Conservation biology
• Population dynamics
• Migration
• Adaptation to climatic change
• Ornithology
• Conservation solutions

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