At heart I am a naturalist. Professionally I am an independent ecologist, journalist, author and educator. My work involves defending and promoting the conservation of protected species, their habitats and wider environment and helping to create opportunities for others to make exciting discoveries about the natural world. I do that by writing, editing, talking, advising, teaching, surveying, researching, broadcasting and producing content on nature, science, conservation and environment.
I work with a diverse range of conservation charities, NGOs, private and public sector & media organisations.
I have 2 decades experience in ecology & environmental science and 3 decades [some concurrently] in media publishing [mainly newspapers, magazines, digital & books - writing, editing, production, management]. I have degrees and post grads in biology, ecology and environmental science plus an NCTJ postgrad in Newspaper Journalism. Other professional training: public administration (local, central, European government), law (wildlife, media, criminal, tort); environmental science lab and field techniques; geochemistry; ecology field skills (taxonomy, FISC-certificated botanist, habitat surveys; species identification & specialist survey methods for plants, mammals, invertebrates, birds, reptiles, amphibians); mitigation and translocation; habitat creation, mapping; statistics; scientific report writing; management; risk assessment; teaching.
I have many years of science fieldwork experience, largely in the UK; some in tropical & Mediterranean habitats. Main nerd things: bats, botany, invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians + less loved and vulnerable beasts and weirdos.