From a young age I have been captivated by the natural world, and my undergraduate degree (MBiolSci) at the University of Sheffield reinforced this fascination. I took a particular interest in birds, and after graduating in 2011 spent 3 months at Long Point Bird Observatory, Ontario, monitoring the truly awesome ‘fall’ migration through a combination of ringing and regular bird watching. The following spring, I went to Skomer Island, Wales, where I took on the job of monitoring the breeding guillemots as part of the long-term project run by the University of Sheffield. Keen to get back into academic research without missing out on field work, I was fortunate enough to be offered the perfect PhD project at the University of East Anglia which kicked-off in autumn 2012.

Project

Through a combination of fieldwork and secondary data analysis, I am exploring the influence of local (summer) and non-local (winter) conditions on the breeding ecology and population dynamics of the European Roller Coracias garrulus at 2 sites - one in Latvia where the population has declined, the other in France, where the population is stable. I hope to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms causing the decline of this charismatic migratory bird in order to direct future evidence-based conservation. My supervisors at UEA are Simon Butler and Aldina Franco.

For more information, please see my external website: www.coracias-research.co.uk