I graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Zoology from Cardiff University in 2007. As part of my degree I carried out a Professional Training Year on the research theme of ‘The Effects of Capturing and Handling Wild Birds’ supervised by Dr Rob Thomas. This was split into two six month sub-placements; from September 2005 I worked in Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences with the Biodiversity and Ecological Processes Group (BEPG), and from March 2006 I worked at A Rocha’s field centre, Cruzinha, in the Algarve, Portugal. My focal species included the European Storm Petrel Hydrobates pelagicus, Kentish Plovers Charadrius alexandrinus and the European Robin Erithacus rubecula. The title of my final year project was “Earthworm pigmentation with relation to avian predators.”

My current project

My PhD thesis is entitled ‘Assessing the ecological significance of linkage and connectivity for avian biodiversity in urban areas’. The project started in 2008 and is funded by a grant from the Big Lottery Fund and linked to the OPAL (Open Air Laboratories) national project via the West Midlands Regional laboratory.

The aim of this project is to understand better the movements of birds through the cityscape. The work should enable insights into the nature and permeability of the landscape matrix, patch isolation due to fragmentation processes, and important linkages and barriers to movement that exist within urban habitats.

I will address these aims by using several methods including: (i) field surveying bird assemblages; (ii) habitat surveying; (iii) radio-tracking and ringing individuals; (iv) stable isotope analyses to investigate importance of habitat types to the foraging ecology of focal species; and (v) GIS development using aerial photographs in the city of Birmingham.

The work is supported by the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES) and the School of Biosciences (both within the College of Life Sciences). My project supervisors are: Dr Jon Sadler (GEES), Dr Jim Reynolds (School of Biosciences), Dr Adam Bates (GEES) and Dr Stefan Bodnar (Birmingham City Council).

Other research experience

In autumn 2007 I worked as a research assistant in Northern Queensland, Australia on co-evolution of Australian cuckoos and their hosts for Dr Naomi Langmore, Dr Golo Maurer (Australian National University) and Dr Rebecca Kilner (University of Cambridge). In May-July 2008 I joined Dr Sue Healy (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Andrew Hurly’s (University of Lethbridge) group in Alberta, Canada as a research assistant to work on the spatial cognition of hummingbirds.