Mike is responsible for how the BTO communicates with a range of audiences, presenting the BTO's science and monitoring work and promoting the role of its volunteer fieldworkers in the provision of data that support conservation science and inform policy. He oversees the BTO's Communications Team, covering the BTO's press, website and publishing operations.

In addition to work on birds and other taxa within the garden environment (Mike was BTO's Head of Garden Ecology for many years), his research interest extends to encompass work on Barn Owl survey and monitoring methods, methods for monitoring mammal species and bird migration. He is a BTO ringer, a Nest Recorder and an active fieldworker. His interests are reflected in both his peer-reviewed papers and more popular books, the latter including Flight Lines (2017) and the New Naturalist volumes on Owls (2014) and Garden Birds (2019).