Stuart has been working in the ecological field for ten years.  Following his degree, he spent 18 months working for the Shrewsbury Countryside Unit undertaking habitat surveys, practical management and re-drafting management plans.  He then spent over three years (two as Assistant, one as Head) as a Warden for the National Trust on the Farne Islands NNR monitoring the breeding seabirds and grey seals.  A spell working for the US Fish & Wildlife followed in Alaska carrying out breeding bird surveys, large mammal tracking, water quality studies, amphibian studies and marine mammal surveys.

In 2002, he became joint Site Manager for Noss NNR on Shetland working for SNH. Then, after a year working for the Manx Wildlife Trust as Site Manager on the Ayres NNR he became a freelance ecologist in 2004. He is an ESAS accredited surveyor and trainer. He has many hours applying ESAS and Cowrie methodology on offshore surveys and is a JNCC approved Marine Mammal Observer (MMO).

He now works UK-wide and has carried out significant ornithological surveys for on and offshore wind farms as well as bat, badger, otter, water vole and reptile surveys. He is also a great crested newt survey license holder.

Micky Maher is an ecological consultant based between Hay-on-Wye, Powys, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He has many hours of on and offshore Seabird and Cetacean survey experience, from land, sea and air. He is a trained JNCC ESAS Observer and is currently in the process of becoming an ESAS trainer. Recently, in 2010 he has used JNCC and Cowrie methodology to survey areas in the Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, Moray Firth, Thames, Shetland, Hebrides and Orkney and in 2009 the Thames, Hebrides, Forth, Tay, Orkney, Shetland, Northern Ireland, Kent, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. He recently co-authored a paper for COWRIE on the use of a high definition camera system for aerial seabird and sea mammal surveys. Micky has surveyed all of the UK’s breeding seabird species and is very familiar with the UK’s regularly occurring cetaceans; as such he is familiar with all of the currently known and used Seabird and Cetacean census techniques and has a working knowledge of how these are applied in an EIA context. He has spent the last twenty years working for some of the leading conservation organisations in Britain, including RSPB, JNCC, SNH, The National Trust and The Wildlife Trusts. Whilst working for SNH he was the site manager for one of Europe’s largest seabird colonies, Noss NNR in Shetland. He also worked on seabirds at the Farne Islands NNR for three years, where he was the Head Warden and had a stint working on seabirds and turtles in the Seychelles. More recently, between 2002-2007 he was employed by Shetland Biological Records Centre. Micky has also made 60 crossings of the Bay of Biscay, recording seabirds, cetaceans and other marine wildlife and has watched Seabirds, Seals and Cetaceans throughout the world for work and pleasure. He has published several identification papers on birds and authored the accounts of White-billed Diver, Ross’s Gull and Ivory Gull for the highly acclaimed Birds of Scotland. Whilst living in Shetland, Micky was the County bird Recorder for the islands during 2002-2007 and a member of the Shetland Sea Mammal Group. Micky is also a team member and guide with Shetland Nature www.shetlandnature.net a successful eco-tourism business based in Shetland.

Tim Sykes has had a life-long interest in wildlife and the great outdoors, and this led to the completion of a degree in Rural Resource Management in 1998. Following several sizeable and diverse stints of voluntary work (over three years’ worth in total), both at home and abroad, Tim was employed as a warden on the Farne Islands in 2001. This was followed by two years wardening for Lincs Wildlife Trust at their flagship Gibraltar Point NNR; and then three seasons as site manager for SNH, on the famous seabird island of Noss NNR in Shetland. During this six-year period he developed a strong background in the joint fields of nature reserve management, wildlife surveying and monitoring, and the conservation of protected species. Although a keen birder for many years, this period has also allowed Tim to develop a broader interest in other wildlife groups, particularly cetaceans and insects.

Tim has been in continuous employment as a freelance ecologist since October 2006. This has involved working for a diverse portfolio of about 20 different organisations, and although bird surveys have formed the bulk of this work, he has also gained a high level of competence in working with reptiles, newts, bats, badgers, water voles, and marine mammals. More recently, Tim has been heavily involved with working offshore on renewable energy projects, and this year alone has surveyed 11 different sites, for eight different organisations. Fully familiar with all bird species potentially encountered offshore, he has also worked as a marine mammal observer on several sites. He has gained JNCC accreditation as an ESAS surveyor, and has recently completed his one-thousandth hour of offshore survey work!