We have relocated our business to 2 York Street Clitheroe, the move has gone quite smoothly! and has allowed us to upgrade our IT and phone systems.

As the survey season is about to commence…..we are delighted that Julie Rose, Chris Reilly, Sarah Birtley and Matt Clifford have recently joined us on 6 month contracts.

Our whole team plus Dave Fisher spent a day with ‘Lucy Cooks’ http://www.lucycooks.co.uk/ in Staveley near Kendal, Cumbria. With a number of staff changes during the summer, the day out proved to be an excellent bonding event. With chef demonstrations and practical sessions the day was rounded off by a 3-course dinner and awards ceremony.

The overall best chef was awared to Dave, best presentation award went to Emma and Jeremy (not a fix!) won the best butchery skills award.

The picture below shows the team with Head Chef Tim in the centre.

We are pleased to have been selected as consultants for United Utilities plc Framework. We have been Framework consultants to United Utilities since 2005. We were also the highest scoring consultants during the tender award process.

2012 has seen a significant period of change for the company. We are currently employed on 3 Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) in the UK and as a consequence have employed a number of new recruits:

Comings

Dr Jules Wynn who was previously the Head of Ecology at Atkins, took up the post of Director in early July 2012. Jules has over 15 years consultancy experience covering the full range of ecological input for EIA including giving evidence at Public Inquiry.

Richard May joined us as Senior Ecologist in August 2012. Previously he was employed by David Clements Ecology Ltd, as a Senior Ecologist. Prior to entering consultancy Richard was Director of South East Wales Biological Records Centre (SEWBReC), Director. He also spent 5 years as the Vale of Glamorgan County Ecologist.

Lucy Blades rejoins us as an Ecologist. Lucy spent the last two years working for consultancies in Scotland. She is based in Scotland and is covering our expanding workload north of the border.

Jack Kellet joins us a Field Ecologist. A Natural History and Wildlife Biology graduate, he has a life-long interest in wildlife and a wide range of field skills including most biological groups.

Claire Wilson has recently completed an MSc in Conservation Biology and has taken up the post of Assistant Ecologist. Following her first degree in Applied Zoology Claire spent 7 years teaching ecology and conservation at Sheffield City College. August 2004 – October 2011 – Lecturer in Ecology & Conservation – Sheffield City College

Goings

Lyndsey Husband departed earlier in the year to take a post in New Zealand. Lyndsey spent three years with the company working on a wide range of schemes including Utility Projects and Hydro-electric schemes.

James Segar returned south having spent three years with the company following completion of his MSc.

Laura Bennet joined us in April 2011 to take up the post of Assistant Ecologist.

Jo Bates and Gemma Howard have both temporarily departed on maternity leave. We are delighted to announce that Jo gave birth to a girl Hana in May, and Gemma gave birth to a boy Luke in July.

Alice Helyar returns from maternity leave in July.

At the start of the bird breeding season we enjoyed a couple of early morning training sessions to brush up on our bird identification skills prior to the onset of the survey season. We invited Dave Bickerton, contributor to the Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside and self proclaimed ‘twitcher’ to provide the training.

Accurate bird identification is required for many aspects of our work. Initial assessments of proposed development sites through the Phase 1 Survey methodology identifies the need for further protected species survey. The earlier the need for additional survey is identified, such as breeding or wintering bird surveys, the better for the client as this may avoid unnecessary delay.

We are lucky enough that our office is based in the Bowland AONB which provides excellent birding in a range of habitats right on our doorstep. The training was based over two early mornings and concentrated on habitat based assessment and the identification of birds by sight and sound. Highlights included siskin, sparrow hawk and a display of lapwing breeding behaviour.

Photo 1 Classroom based discussion before venturing out into the field

Photo 2 Models of concentration

Photo 3 Discussion of habitat requirements of ground nesting birds

Photo 4 Spotted…!

Photo 5 ‘You need a sharp ear in this business…’

During July Alice Helyar gave birth to a baby daughter Chloe, Alice is due to return to work in summer 2011.

Kerry Rhodes joins us from AECOM to take up the position of Senior Ecologist. Kerry has about 8 years experience and has been involved in large infrastructure projects. She holds protected species licenses (bats, great crested newts) and has a particularly strong background in mammal ecology.

Freddie Talbot worked with us during the summer, he has now departed to take up a place on a degree course in Criminology and Psychology at Hull University.

Elodie Russier returned to France to complete her MSc following a two month placement during spring and early summer. Elodie’s internship involved studies of the effectiveness of amphibian mitigation and compared hands on data collected from an ongoing pipeline mitigation scheme with data collected on previous mitigation schemes.

After a three year association with us, we were sad to see Lucy Blades depart to Edinburgh where she took up a post with ESS Ecology.