Sophie is currently working on delivering a programme of seabird tracking in Scotland investigating potential interactions of these species with offshore renewables developments, as well as supporting a range of projects within the Wetland and Marine team.

Sophie is primarily a seabird ecologist and her fascination with these birds have taken her to a range of projects including monitoring shearwaters and petrels in New Zealand, as a seabird research assistant on the Farallon Islands in California, and most recently to Antarctica to survey penguin colonies. Sophie is interested in a range of questions related to seabird ecology, not limited to non-breeding behaviour, energetics, population ecology and developing monitoring methods.

Sophie has a particular interest in using emerging technologies to investigate key knowledge gaps in seabird behaviour and population ecology. Most recently Sophie was investigating the use of bioacoustics to improve monitoring coverage of European Storm Petrels in the UK. Further, for her PhD Sophie was using both camera traps and biologgers to investigate previously under-explored winter behaviours and energetics of Common Guillemots. Continuing this theme, Sophie is currently using camera traps to explore the winter behaviour of Northern Fulmars in Scotland.

Sophie is a very experienced field worker and has worked on a diverse range of ornithological field projects including on passerines, waders, wildfowl, raptors and of course seabirds. She is an active trainer with the BTO’s ringing scheme and supports coordination of much of the seabird ringing in the Inner Firth of Forth.

In her free time Sophie is a keen naturalist and enjoys monitoring and recording a range of taxa. Outside of her great fondness of the natural world Sophie enjoys climbing, playing guitar and learning languages.

BSc (Hons) Biology, University of Kent, 2016

MRes, Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, Imperial College London, 2017

PhD, University of Liverpool: ‘ The year-round importance of breeding sites in common guillemots Uria aalge, 2023