Team & Expertise

Leaders in Environmental Commercial Research
Our team’s expertise in environmental research for commercial projects is unrivalled; we are leaders in the field. The edge we enjoy over others in our field iis based on a strong foundation in non-commercial and academic research having altogether published over 170 peer reviewed papers (Click here to view the list of publications by our staff.). We also have acquired a broad spectrum of specialist skills and knowledge over many years of practical experience. These include GIS analysis, radio-telemetry, and extensive personal experiential knowledge gained from many hours in the field collecting data and at the desk analysing them. Our principal researchers are highly regarded by their peers and we employ similarly qualified field researchers, data analysts and administrators. These skills and our integrity in critical evaluation are the bases for our high standard of reporting.

Commercial Understanding
As an established commercial research organisation, we recognize our clients needs, whilst still retaining independent integrity needed to conduct high-quality research. We have worked with national and international organisations on a variety of environmental issues and have worked with them to find solutions to problems.

Our Team
We employ high-quality field researchers, whose work may be seasonal. Their skills and integrity in reporting are the bases for our high standard of analyses and reporting. Our core commercial team comprises the following experts:

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.

Digger Jackson PhD Digger has a life long interest in all wildlife, especially birds, mammals and fish.  Since completing his PhD on breeding waders in 1988 at University of Durham he has led various research projects in Scotland and overseas.  He spent 11 years as a RSPB research biologist working on a range of projects including studies on the ecology of black-throated divers, the causes of breeding wader population changes in the Outer Hebrides and the related subject of the impact on birds and the population ecology of hedgehogs introduced to Scottish islands.  More recently he has worked overseas, in the Fiji Islands surveying rainforest birds for BirdLife International and studying the endangered Masked Shining Parrot for Wildlife Conservation Society, and helping with wader migration studies in Australia.

His work with Natural Research is focused on the ecology and behaviour of breeding divers and how conflicts with human developments can be avoided. His current work includes detailed studies of the flight behaviour of red-throated divers, to develop a predictive spatial flight-path model (along the lines of the PAT model for eagles) that can be used to guide the locating of developments within the breeding range, such as wind farms.

Digger is a member of the IUCN Invasive Species Specialist Group and the Wetlands International Diver and Loon Specialist Group.  His other interests include photography, travel to wild places and growing things.

Dave Walker After working for the National Trust on the Farne Islands Dave’s involvement with golden eagles began in Cumbria where he was the RSPB’s senior protection warden during 1979 to 1985, when he also became particularly interested in eagle behaviour. He began to monitor a population of eagles in north Argyll in 1986, has been employed to study eagles in a large portion of the western Highlands, on all of the major Hebridean islands and took part in all three national eagle surveys. Away from golden eagles, he has worked on white tailed eagles, hen harriers, peregrines, merlins and red and black throated divers, amongst others. Dave spent two years as warden of an upland grouse moor/nature reserve where he was involved with habitat management for upland waders, red and black grouse. He also undertook fieldwork for the Sound of Barra and Sound of Harris SPAs. Away from birds he has been monitoring the population dynamics of a red deer herd since the mid 1980s and is actively involved with red squirrel conservation in Cumbria. Dave was a founder member of the Cumbria raptor study group, is a member of the Argyll rsg and, during 1997-2002, was a regional organiser and a member of the steering and methodology committees for the Cumbria breeding bird atlas project. Dave started working with the embryonic NRP on Kintyre in 1997 and he continues to monitor eagle and upland bird ecology both there and elsewhere in Scotland.  

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.

Andy Thorpe Andy has a wide-ranging interest in birds, but particularly in birds of the Scottish uplands. He has participated in many national and specialist surveys, including Dotterel, Merlin, Twite and Ring Ouzel. He has held a BTO ringing licence for 30 years and carried out a colour ringing study on inland and coastal Stonechats in Aberdeenshire during the late 1990’s. He is currently County Bird Recorder for NE Scotland. He also holds the post of North Sea Bird Club Recorder based at Aberdeen University and overseas the production of bulletins and annual reports covering bird observations from Oil and Gas installations in the North Sea.

As Surveys Manager, Andy is responsible for co-ordinating the survey work of the field teams and liaising with the client. He oversees the inputting of data collected and its collation in preparation for the writing of reports and environmental statements.

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.

Stephanie Provan MSc Steph studied Conservation Biology and Environmental Remote Sensing at Aberdeen University.   Before working for NRP she worked for NESBReC (North East Scotland Biological Records Centre).   Her main responsibility is GIS work for NRP and she has been on a number of training courses, which were designed specifically for NR and the research work it conducts.   Her work includes producing figures for reports including digitised maps (such as species flightlines), running the PAT (Predicting Aquila Territories) model, producing vantage point viewsheds, and any other GIS related work.

Hannah Fraser Hannah studied Environmental Geography at the University of Aberdeen for 4 years and gained an MA(Hons).  Within NRP she is responsible for inputing the data that comes in each month from the field workers. She is also involved in GIS work, producing the maps of flight lines (that look like spaghetti), and helping Steph with our cartography needs.  

Marc Ruddock PhD Marc completed his PhD thesis on the population dynamics, behaviour and foraging ecology of peregrine falcons at Queen’s University, Belfast. Prior to this, his work has involved providing educational raptor displays in South Africa as well as working on various research projects in Northern Ireland, including light-bellied Brent goose winter foraging ecology, radio tracking feral ferrets and winter passerine surveys. Marc is an active member of the Northern Ireland Raptor Study Group where he is involved with annual peregrine surveys, as well as providing advice and guidance to the industrial sector, particularly concerning raptor occupancy at quarry sites. His current research interests include pest species population dynamics, bioenergetics of predator-prey relationships and raptor reintroductions. Marc enjoys rock and ice climbing (although is not particularly good at either!). Marc is currently on secondment at Queens University Belfast.

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.

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

Kevin Duffy MSc Kevin has worked with birds and other wildlife for over 20 years.  Initially employed in Edinburgh Zoo, has also worked abroad, mainly on Mauritius on the conservation of the endemic and highly endangered echo parakeet.  Kevin has worked for Scottish Natural Heritage on the second phase of sea eagle reintroduction in the NW Highlands, then for 5 years for the RSPB on red kite reintroductions in Scotland.   Kevin has a variety of conservation and wildlife interests, including and especially reintroductions.  Although he has mainly worked on birds, he also is interested in mammals (especially cats, mustelids), reptiles and amphibians. 

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.

Bob Stakim Bob has had a life-long interest in birds,especially of moorland & upland. He has studied hen harrier merlin & peregrine under licence from Scottish Natural Heritage and as a member of the South Scotland Raptor Study Group since 1983. Bob has attended a variety of mountain leadership courses. Prior to joining NRP in 2003, Bob carried out independent bird surveys for various consultancies, including surveying & advising on land restoration & management for birds on Scottish Coal opencast sites. At NRP Bob is a keystone to the high quality field work upon which our consultancy work depends.

Bob's hobbies encompass music, including playing the guitar for pleasure, walking & fly fishing. He says he likes a good bottle of wine (a statement to which we can attest) and has recently taken up photography.

Ged Connelly Ged traces his interest in natural history back to his childhood. In his employment he has always sought jobs that would get him outdoors. So, he started his working life working in forestry.

Unlike many on our team that are strapped to computers, Ged is out in the field almost all of the time. His lifelong interest in wildlife has trained him to be a good observer and he has a range of field skills that are difficult to find in biologists nowadays. Because our work depends upon quality field work, Ged is a key link in the chain.

When Ged is not looking at widlife through binoculars, he is often doing so through a camera because he is a keen photographer

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.

Bev Leithead Bev joined NRP in August 2007, having previous worked for CEH Banchory (Admin and Site Finance Team 2 yrs) and Banchory Chiropody Practice (receptionist 3 yrs). She is our company administrator and it is often her that people calling the company first encounter. Bev has lived overseas in Brunei and New Orleans, 1993 - 2001, but for the 10 years prior to that overseas stint, she worked for Barclays Bank. Currently, Bev is studying for a Certified Qualification in Book Keeping. Her hobbies include foreign travel and gardening, when she gets the chance; though her three daughters keep her busy most of the time!

Barbara Cook Barbara Cook joined Natural Research in March 2005 as Company Administrator. Her previous employment included working in the off-shore oil and gas industry and more recently within the National Health Service.

She has a keen interest in outdoor pursuits and spends a lot of time successfully training and trialling her gun dogs. Currently, Barbara is on maternity leave.