 Mike Madders PhD Mike has been professionally involved with upland bird
species (mainly raptors) for over 30 years, i.e. all his working life. Since 1984 he has lived on islands off the west coast of Scotland and undertaken studies for a variety of governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Scottish Natural Heritge (SNH) and its precursors, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and its precursor, and the University of Glasgow. He is Chairman of the Argyll Raptor Study Group and a founder member of the Argyll Bird Club.
Mike has been particularly associated with work on the foraging ecology of white-tailed eagles and hen harriers. His 1997 doctorate from the University of Glasgow was on the effects of forestry on harriers. Recently, he has specialised in the study of bird behaviour in relation to windfarms and has been instrumental in devising field and analytical methods to determine the likely effects of windfarm developments, together with innovative approaches to mitigating potential impacts. He has written and given presentation on these topics in Europe and North America. He continues to study hen harrier behaviour in the UK and supervises studies of pallid and Montagu's harriers elsewhere.
Mike's other interests include contemporary music and rough wine. He plants native Scottish trees for fun and the amusement of his neighbours. Mike is a director of Natural Research.
 Mike McGrady PhD Mike has worked for over 25 years on projects related to raptor ecology, and has conducted independent research on golden eagles, peregrine and prairie falcons, sparrowhawks, Steller's sea eagle, and griffon, cinereous, and bearded vultures in many countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and Central America. Particular interests include population dynamics and ranging behaviour (including migration), and using new techniques and technologies to conduct better research. He has authored over 40 peer-reviewed articles. Mike's work with Natural Research includes modelling ranging behaviour and assessing likely impacts of development on golden eagles, studying dispersal in golden eagles, demography of peregrine falcons, movement of vultures in central Asia, and sandgrouse in Arabia and training of Middle East oil workers in avian ecology and potential oil production-related impacts. Mike is a director of Natural Research. Click here for Mike's CV.
 Phil Whitfield PhD Phil’s professional career with birds started in the early 1980s at Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities researching the behaviour and ecology of wintering and breeding shorebirds (waders) before leaving academia for the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) to run the Montane Ecology Project, a long-term study of the interactions between birds, invertebrates, vegetation, grazing, recreation and climate in montane Scotland. He joined Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the government’s advisor on conservation in Scotland, as upland ornithologist, when the NCC devolved to country agencies in 1992, undertaking and commissioning research and providing advice on a wide range of ornithological issues, leaving as senior ornithologist to join Natural Research in 2005. Phil has authored over 50 peer-reviewed papers and numerous reports and articles. His research interests continue to be with shorebirds, with previous projects having been based in Scotland, Finland, Iceland, high arctic Canada, and the north slope of Alaska, working on a number of species including Eurasian dotterel, phalaropes, several calidridine sandpipers and plovers, turnstone and redshank. A later interest in birds of prey began when it became apparent several of his shorebird subjects were being killed by raptors, prompting several studies of the effects of raptor predation on shorebird behaviour and population ecology. Other work has included organising national surveys, supervision of several PhD students, raptor reintroductions, using GIS to study spatial ecology and model ranging behaviour, raptor and shorebird population dynamics, sexual selection, plumage variability, feeding specialisations, effects of habitat loss and incubation behaviour. Most recent work has been on the population ecology and conservation of golden eagles, and on impacts of wind farms on birds and methods for their study. Click here for Phil's CV.
 Ruth Tingay PhD Ruth has studied raptors on six continents and has a wide range of research interests, from breeding behaviour and ecology to conservation genetics. Her 2005 doctorate from the University of Nottingham focused on the critically endangered Madagascar fish eagle, a species she continues to study. Ruth joined Natural Research in 2004 and works as senior research coordinator for the charitable arm of the organisation. She is currently involved with projects on golden eagles, white-tailed sea eagles, goshawks and hen harriers in Scotland, and on fish eagles in Madagascar, East Africa, Mongolia and Cambodia. Ruth serves on the Raptor Research Foundation board of directors and is chair of its Eurasian Committee.
 Ewan Weston Ewan is the youngest member of our team at only 23. He graduated with first class honours in Zoology from Aberdeen in 2006. Since then he has worked on Hen Harriers with NR in Northern Ireland before spending 9 weeks studying Little Auks in East Greenland with a small team from Alaska Pacific University and the French Polar Institute. He is an active member of the North-East Scotland Raptor Study Group and visited his first Golden Eagle nest a the age of 15, and now helps out with the annual long term monitoring of the 18 pairs in NE Scotland. He also plays an active role in the current reintroduction of Red Kites to Aberdeenshire, helping with all phases of the project. He has a wide range interest in other birds, but particularly enjoys raptors, waders, crossbills and kingfishers. He has held a ringing licence since he was 16 and is a very active member of Grampian Ringing Group, ringing several thousand birds each year. Ewan has been back working with Natural Research since November 2007.
 Simon Hulka Simon has been involved in bird survey work for the last 20 years. Since 1994 he has principally worked on surveys of upland bird populations in Scotland. For Natural Research, he has spent most of his time since 2002 studying red-and black-throated diver breeding and foraging behaviour as part of the Natural Research Diver Project. Simon is currently a PhD research student at Glasgow University, studying red-throated diver breeding biology, sponsored by Natural Research.
 Julien Terraube Julien is currently working on his PhD on the behavioural ecology, migratory strategies and population dynamics of two sympatric raptor species breeding in north Kazakhstan: the Pallid and Montagu’s harriers. Previous work involved participation in different research projects linked with bird ecology including the effects of steppe fragmentation on Pin-tailed sandgrouse population dynamics, and the seasonal sex-ratio variations in a Black-headed gull population. His long-term interest in raptor ecology has involved him in a number of annual surveys of large raptors (principally Bonelli’s eagle) surveys in southern France.
Julien's current research interests include avian behavioural ecology, population dynamics and their implications in conserving bird biodiversity. Julien is currently based at the University of Castilla-la-Mancha, Ciudad Real, in Spain.
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