I started a NERC-funded PhD studentship in 2008, investigating the effects of supplementary feeding on the parental energetics of parental woodland birds.  The study will involve field work with the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (Heteren) in the first year, and two subsequent seasons in Chaddesley Wood, linking in to the PhD studies of Jen Smith and Tim Harrison.  My studies will focus on the Daily Energetic Expenditure of supplemented female great tits and blue tits at three reproductive phases, egg-laying, incubation and brood provisioning.  By analysing the energetic expenditure in relation to supplementary feeding, it is hoped to find explanations for documented effects of provisioning such as advanced laying date and reduced incubation time.

My main area of interest is investigating how anthropogenic influences interact with avian ecology.  I'm excited about the opportunity that this PhD study presents to enable me to examine the causality of this relationship in very fine detail.

Having initially studied for a BA Hons in French and then worked in the IT industry for a number of years, I undertook an MSc in Conservation and Biodiversity at the University of Exeter to change career path.  Following the MSc, I worked as a research assistant for Uppsala University Sweden, on a project investigating the interaction between individual phenotype and grouping decisions in House sparrows.  I'm a trainee BTO bird ringer, and have worked on a project ringing migratory palearctic passerines in Ukraine.