Category: Volunteers

Finding the right fieldwork for you, finding the right assistant for fieldwork

21/8/2014

For me, starting a career in ecology was about getting out of the artificially lit office and into the wilderness, trading pens for machetes and box-ticking for fire-lighting. Whilst I’m sure that staring at the electrical glow of a computer on a 9-5 basis has its thrills, I have always struggled to incorporate more of a balance.

And I do stress the verb struggle, as fieldwork is becoming an increasingly marginalized component of ecology/zoology/biology degrees. Therefore chances for finding valuable fieldwork experiences are limited, which on another note, isn’t conducive towards solving the catch 22 of ‘to get fieldwork experience you need fieldwork experience’. This article is to simply suggest how to break this circular paradoxical application process, but also to highlight the importance of knowing how you might take to fieldwork.

OK so I’m going to be presumptuous in poising this article towards students going through higher education. Firstly, ecology/biology/zoology etc. undergraduate programs generally offer at least one fieldwork module. These will introduce the student to the basics of recording in the field, but it is not necessarily a realistic representation. Usually the lecturers or demonstrators involved will have set out a definite work schedule that the entire class follows. What’s most beneficial from these courses is discovering whether you have an affinity for fieldwork or not. Undergraduate dissertations are increasingly lab or desk based and so might not be the best opportunity for gaining experience in fieldwork per say. However, they are not to be dismissed in terms of data analysis, question posing or methodological design, all important skills worth sharing on your CV.

MSc programs will also offer a similar field work modules to a BSc and these are usual shared between UG and PG students with less and more work expected respectively. An MSc dissertation offers a higher scope for gaining useful fieldwork experience; this is when most students leave the nest and tackle the entire experience without the security demonstrators and classmates would provide should problems arise.

Working holidays provide another pathway for amassing experience. I have some experience in these and all I can say is that you should research carefully because some can be more holiday than work. With the expense of these packages in mind you don’t want to waste your money. Also, you get out what you put in. There is value in asking the organisers to be involved in simple tasks such as organising data, logistical operations or simply shadowing staff on the more ‘boring’ and less brochure friendly aspects of the work involved. Getting involved in these areas does not just benefit your CV but also reveals what aspects – if any – of fieldwork you enjoy.

I have certainly done my time in constantly refreshing the webpages of fieldwork post listings, sending my CV off to every poor soul in sight and now find myself on the illustrious pedestal of a PhD Studentship whereby I am posting fieldwork opportunities on those same websites. I now understand the importance of prior experience placed on these advertisements – you need a guarantee that you have someone who can collect the data soundly, and can withstand the physical and mental stresses of the fieldwork conditions.

In reality, experience doesn’t necessarily have to come from a purely biological background and if you don’t possess this then it is not necessarily an issue in the field. A degree in biology is not required for ecological recording; these techniques are instead reliant on common sense. Excelling in class does not necessarily correlate with excelling in fieldwork. Both are components of the study of ecology, but ecology is a multi-disciplinary subject. I find the necessary qualities to possess are: being personable; being able to maintain morale; and having a good attitude and a sense of humour when things don’t go to plan (which invariably occurs). Expressing these qualities is definitely worthwhile regardless of how they were attained.

In my experience I have worked alongside individuals with no biological expertise who excelled in the field, but also stellar students whose interests were completely incompatible with the tasks at hand. So I’ll continue to look outside the box in terms of relevant qualities, but just as it is my duty to ensure that I am picking the right person, it is equally the applicant’s responsibility to understand the reality of the work involved and know whether it is right for them.

By Hagen O'Neill

Hagen is a Phd with CEG and studies red deer distribution on the island of Ulva, Scotland.

0 Comments

CEG welcomes visiting researcher Danielle Gauthier

25/7/2014

0 Comments

Danielle Gauthier has joined our research group and will be a visiting researcher with us until the end of September. Danielle is working on a pilot study to detect trends in spatial and temporal distribution of red deer in an area of Scotland. She is using GIS, historical cull and count data to determine changes in abundance, distribution and habitat preferences. Danielle is working with Dr Phil Stephens and Dr Justin Irvine from the James Hutton Institute. To see Danielle's profile see here.

0 Comments

Stu's Top Moths: Week 8.5 - A visit to the trap

22/7/2014

1 Comment

We are in week 8 of MRes student Stuart Brooker's moth trapping efforts in the woodlands around Durham University. This week Stuart had eleven human visitors to the trap for an impromptu mid-week trapping session. Stuart set out his trap so interested members of CEG and the School of Biology could come and see what moth trapping was all about. I was interested in joining Stuart because I have been amazed at how beautiful Stuart's weekly photos have been. I am ashamed to admit that I mostly believed that moths were the true 'Little Brown Jobs' of the natural world. But, I am happy to report that Stuart has proven me terribly wrong.

Stuart set-up his trap in his usual place and we joined him when it got dark, around 930 pm. The light on the trap is extremely bright and it wasn't long until moths began showing up.

Stuart's trapping kit includes:

A wooden moth trap with a light that runs on electricity
Cardboard egg boxes inside and around the base of the outside of the trap to provide shelter
A large white suspended sheet
Moth identification guides
Sample pots for examining moths

The most abundant visitor to the trap was the small fan-footed wave (Idaea biselata). However, the heavyweights of the night were the Swallow-tailed Moth (Ourapteryx sambucaria) and Large Emerald (Geometra papilionaria) as seen in the photos below. All the moths were released live after we had all had a chance to look at them and Stuart had identified them. Despite the trap being out for only 2 hours we managed to catch 39 species (see the complete species list here).

I have developed a whole new level of respect for Lepidopterists and moth-enthusiasts like Stuart. For someone who studies (mere) birds, the sheer number of moths in the UK and the effort it takes to identify them is truly humbling. There are the so-called "macro-moths", of which there are around 800 regular British species, and the micro-moths, of which 1600 species have been recorded in the British Isles [1]. Stuart was able to ID most moths and point out their peculiarities without even looking in a book. But, I guess - for someone whose second favourite pass-time is identifying hoverflies - I shouldn't be that surprised by these skills!

Not long ago, I read an interesting article cautioning about the loss of natural history and nature literacy. The article points out that there is a huge gap in our knowledge of nature, especially the understudied organisms. The author argues that inspiring a curiosity for and understanding of biodiversity in young people and in scientists is vitally important. Perhaps it will take naturalists like Stuart and community events like this one to encourage an enthusiasm and an interest in nature and to bridge this biodiversity gap. Here at CEG we have a unique group of scientists with an excellent knowledge of (or appetite for) natural history and we try to encourage an interest in Durham's wildlife. I think we demonstrate that being a scientist and being a naturalist are not mutually exclusive pursuits and that one skill set benefits the other. Hopefully here at Durham University - with its remarkable woodlands and habitats - we will continue to have these types of events and to attract people with unconventional skills and interests to broaden our experiences with nature.

FYI - Stuart is planning a second public trapping session to invite more people to have the same experience. Stay tuned for details about that event! To read more about Stuart's moth trapping or see previous trapping records click here...

Stuart explaining how the moth trap works

Telling tales by the light of the trap

Watching moths come to the sheet

Alke (left) identifies an individual while Stuart and others remove the moths from the trap

Swallow-tailed Moth (Ourapteryx sambucaria)

Large Emerald (Geometra papilionaria)

Dark Marbled Carpet (Chloroclysta citrata)

Iron Prominent (Notodonta dromedarius)

Scalloped Oak (Crocallis elinguaria)

V-pug (Chloroclystis v-ata)

*The last five photos were taken by Stuart Brooker, all other photos by Teegan Docherty

by Teegan Docherty
Teegan is a PhD student with CEG and joined us in October 2013. She studies fire ecology and habitat use in savanna ecosystems in South Africa.

1 Comment

Blue Tit Nest box monitoring in Durham's woodlands

30/5/2014

0 Comments

Every year members of the Conservation Ecology Group monitor and ring Blue Tits and other woodland birds using nest boxes in the woodlands around Durham University. This effort is led by Dr David Baker and Dr Steve Willis. We are currently monitoring 120 nest boxes. Most of the boxes are active and have day 3 to day 9 nestlings. Follow us on twiiter @CEGDurham for updates and photos of the nest boxes.

Day 3-4 blue tit nestlings begging to be fed.

Blue tit nestlings in a bird bag waiting to be ringed.

David Baker holding an adult blue tit he has just ringed.

Monitoring nests throughout the spring provides useful information such as the timing of nesting, the numbers of eggs laid, timing of hatching, and the numbers of chicks that survive to fledge the nest. This data, combined with other nest box projects coordinated by the British Trust for Ornithology, is used to keep track of bird numbers and contributes to a growing body of knowledge on bird population trends across the country. Next year this project will contribute to incoming PhD student Claire Branston's project who will be working on a NERC-funded project, with CASE support from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). This project is titled ‘The role of climate and habitat in the reproduction and population dynamics of insectivorous birds in British woodlands’. The project will combine nestbox data collected at Durham with similar data from other sites that are co-ordinated by Ali Philimore at Edinburgh Uni, and also using the extensive data resource on nesting birds held by the BTO.

Recording and discussing information about the nest box

Checking a nest box

Adult blue tit

This project is also part of ongoing research within CEG to monitor the biodiversity supported by the woods around Durham University. If you are interested in helping with the nest box projects or other projects around Durham, please contact a member of CEG or Experience Durham for available opportunities. For more information about nest boxes visit the British Trust for Ornithology website.