A keen ecologist with two seasons of experience, actively working towards hazel dormouse, great crested newt, and bat level one licenses.
I would like to employ my life-long love of UK wildlife and further my career in ecology. I have a working practice of bat, dormouse, otter, water vole, breeding birds, reptile, and newt surveys (both population and habitat suitability scoping, e.g. preliminary ground level tree and building roost assessments for bats or habitat suitability indices for newts).
My degree had a strong focus on taxonomy and identification as well as survey techniques. Over the summer I have held a fixed term position with Mott MacDonald in Southampton, working out in the field every week since April which has helped me to hone my identification and survey skills. While working with Thomson Ecology my knack for strict organisation has come into practice helping the project manager I was working with organise vast amounts of survey results, as I became an informal data manager to help keep an eye on survey information. I also helped to quality check my colleagues’ bat identification.
Towards the end of my time with Thomson and during my season with Mott MacDonald I have been a regular team leader. I have also been in the office creating the schedules for site work and arranging survey access with land owners. My team leading skills also came into play when Chiltern Rangers CIC – a charity I used to volunteer for – asked me to lead bat surveys with members of the public as part of BioBlitz 2018. While volunteering with them I also helped to lead a newt bottle trapping survey as part of a community outreach programme, as well as being able to demonstrate netting and helping the public identifying newts, both adult and efts.
I am a dedicated team player and am very committed to any role I am given. I am aiming to gain bat, newt, and dormouse licences as my career progresses; I am very close to getting a level 1 bat licence (I only need one more reference), and am actively working towards my dormouse licence by completing monthly next box checks with Thomson Ecology.
I like to ensure I stay up-to-date with the relevant legislation in my line of work. When I was approached by members of the public while on survey I found that knowing the laws regarding handling protected species, and being able to explain the specifics of the licences that we operate under, as well as the fines and other consequences of disturbing wildlife was very helpful.
I am also working to improve my bird identification skills by ticking off as many species as I can in a European bird book, taking trips to wetland and woodland sites on weekends and taking time to ensure I am correctly identifying any birds seen.
BSc Degree in Zoology
Driving
Machinery
Chemicals
NGB Awards
Animal
RHS Qualifications (or Equivalent)
Outdoor Education
Other
Two seasons of ecological surveys
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