Dr Phil Whitfield
Managing Director NR Group
Phil's professional career with birds started in the early 1980s at Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities (PhD and Research Fellowship, respectively) 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. Phil routinely formulated SNH’s response to ornithological impact assessments in hundreds of cases, especially those involving wind farms, and he formulated and represented SNH's position on ornithological issues at several Public Local Inquiries, including wind farm cases. Phil assisted in the organisation and made presentations for several SNH staff training events involving bird interests, including how to examine and respond to Environmental Impact Assessments involving wind farm proposals. He also organised and made key presentations at a SNH workshop for ecological consultants and industry representatives on Developing Best Practice in wind farm impact assessment.
Phil left SNH when Senior Ornithologist to join Natural Research in 2005. In late 2009 he became Managing Director of Natural Research (Projects).
Phil has authored over 70 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, Norway, 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 behavior (the ‘PAT’ model for Golden Eagles), 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.
Phil was the primary author and developer of the original SNH guidance on assessment methods for wind farm impacts on birds. This guidance has now become the basis for most EIAs undertaken in the UK and is recognised as the industry-standard. He is a co-author on a key paper describing methods that can be used to estimate predicted collision fatalities at operational wind farms (the ‘Band’ collision risk model): this model has been used for many years in the assessment of wind farm effects on birds in the UK, and it is being increasingly used in other countries. Since joining Natural Research, Phil has continued to provide advice on, for example, developing standard metrics in wind turbine collision risk modelling and in producing guidance on monitoring wind farm impacts. Phil has written several Environmental Statement chapters assessing the potential effects of wind farm proposals on birds, and oversees production of all such chapters produced by NRP for commercial clients.
Phil has regularly lectured University of Edinburgh students on the methods and skills necessary to assess and monitor wind farm impacts on birds. He was also part of the lecturing staff for a Raptor Conservation course for students at the International University of Andalucía, Baeza, which included his contribution of a module on Wind Farms and Raptors. Phil acts as the Independent Ornithological Expert for a large operational wind farm in north-east Bulgaria, advises World Wildlife Fund (Greece) on responding to and monitoring wind energy proposals in Thrace, and was a member of the science committee for the First Iberian Conference on Wind Energy and Wildlife.
For Commercial Ecological Consultancy, Advice & Services:
Natural Research (Projects) Ltd
T: +44 (0) 1330 826880
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