​​Calgary Zoo, Centre for Conservation Research  

My main project during my two years here was measuring heavy metal concentrations in shorebirds breeding in Canada's arctic.  Heavy metals are thought to pose an especially high risk to migratory shorebirds and are of increasing concern in the arctic, but despite the obvious connection were essentially unstudied in Canada's arctic shorebirds.  We collected blood, feathers and eggs to work out whether shorebirds were facing dangerous levels of these pollutants and, because each tissue retains contaminants for a different length of time, whether birds were exposed in Canada's arctic or on their southern breeding grounds. 



In addition to this brief foray into toxicology, I worked on the Year of the Frog campaign to raise awareness of global amphibian declines, a mark-recapture project monitoring threatened leopard frogs in eastern Alberta, and a captive-breeding study of Vancouver Island Marmots. One of the best things about working at a zoo is the emphasis on science communication - we wrote popular science articles & website pages, designed games for school kids, and gave presentations to classrooms and community groups and media interviews to communicate our research to as wide an audience as possible. Another perk were the feral peacocks that would sneak into our office.



​Arctic breeding bird ecology 

Canadian Wildlife Service, Université Laval, Trent University  

Before conducting my own research on arctic shorebirds I spent three summers in the Arctic studying the breeding ecology of shorebirds, snow geese and thick-billed murres.  Fieldwork involved lots of tundra-traversing to find nests, catching and banding adults and chicks of many species (by helicopter drop, rappelling down colony cliffs, or after hours of lying on the tundra under a camoflague-cloak), behavioural observations, and polar bear avoidance.



Tropical bird ecology

Costa Rica, South Africa  

I have spent a total of two years living in South Africa, including 4 months of fieldwork for my undergraduate thesis on sunbird pollination, and 9 months of fieldwork for my MSc on pollen theft in Aloes. After my BSc I helped run a banding station for saw-whet owls and then worked for four months in Costa Rica studying house wrens just below the cloud forests. We monitored nest boxes, banded birds, collected blood samples, recorded song and observed parenting behaviour. This is where I first learned to love Spanish and hate cows.