Staff Profiles (short profile, name address
and e-mail. Link to cv
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.
Andrew
Thorpe
BSc
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
costal
Stonechats
in
Aberdeenshire
during
the
late
1990’s.
He
is
currently
County
Bird
Recorder
for
NE
Scotland
and
a
National
Council
member
of
the
Scottish
Ornithologists’ Club.
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,
he
is
responsible
for
co-ordinating
the
survey
work
of
the
field
teams
and
liaising
with
the
client.
He
overseas
the
inputting
of
data
collected
and
its
collation
in
preparation
for
the
writing
of
reports
and
environmental
statements.
Phil Whitfield PhD
Stuart Rae PhD 
Stuart has worked professionally for 23 years on upland birds as part of a specialisation on montane ecology, including work on all birds found in the Scottish Highlands with particular focus on Golden eagle, White-tailed eagle, Dotterel, Ptarmigan, Red grouse, Purple sandpiper, Snow bunting, Golden plover, Dunlin and Greenshank. As a founder member of the North East Scotland Raptor Study Group, he has been working on private studies of golden eagle, osprey and peregrine for over 30 years. Other specialist knowledge, techniques and fields of interest give a comprehensive knowledge of land-use and ecology in the Scottish Highlands in particular and worldwide montane/arctic ecology in general. These include: radio telemetry, National Vegetation Classification, habitat condition assessment, soil science, game shooting, skiing and mountaineering. Related work has included the study of the effect of feral mink on seabirds in the Western Isles. Wider private studies include work on seabirds, waders, crossbills and corn bunting. Further studies are being developed on foraging behaviour of wedge-tailed eagle, and a suite of other birds that feed in man-made clearings in the Australian bush. For Natural Research Stuart has concentrated on gathering information on raptors, divers and waders in the field for environmental impact assessments of windfarm proposals, and analysing and presenting data on these and other species to clients.
Stephanie
Carey-Miller
 Steph studied Conservation Biology at Aberdeen University and is now completing an MSc in Environmental Remote Sensing. 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.
Aly McCluskie PhD
Ruth Tingay PhD
 Ruth is a research ecologist with a particular interest in raptors, and has conducted field research in Mauritius, Rodrigues, USA, Israel, UK, Mexico and Madagascar. Her PhD from the University of Nottingham was on the critically endangered Madagascar fish eagle . Her work with Natural Research includes studies on competitive foraging between the golden eagle and white-tailed sea eagle in the Scottish Western Isles; dietary studies of the merlin in the Outer Hebrides; seasonal monitoring of upland bird species at a proposed wind farm site on the Isle of Lewis; and the ecology of the grey-headed fishing eagle and the lesser fishing eagle in Nepal and India.
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.
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.
Mike Madders
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