Teesmouth & Cleveland Coast EMS: Bird disturbance surveys with Natural England.

I know it hasn't been long since my last update but I should really talk about my trip to Redcar before I get too busy (or maybe I am just using this as a useful procrastination tool... who knows?) Anyway, I have mentioned it before in a previous post but alas I shall repeat myself (hey, it beats reading a rather dry paper about IUU fishing... I need to find a better one) - As part of my MSc in Marine Environmental Management I have to undertake a 8-10 week project placement (not work experience per se, but a project) where I do research and subsequently write it up into a 5000 word report (essentially another dissertation). Well, I was in a little bit of a predicament with what I should go for and in the end I decided to go with Natural England (and INCA) and do a project assessing the impacts of recreational activities on the overwintering and migratory birds at the Teesmouth and Cleveland Coast European Marine Site (EMS). This would mainly be through the use of spatial analysis (ArcGIS) and statistical analysis (oh joy ~ I can use either SPSS or, if I feel confident in doing so, 'R'). Well, after contacting the current EMS project officer, Katherine (who is sadly leaving at the start of next month) we decided on a date to go over some of the methodology and meet with some of the team, mainly to introduce myself and get some direction for my actual placement.

So, Tuesday morning I got up bright and early, jumped in the shower and made myself look quite respectable (I opted for practicality, comfort and a little bit of style if that's what you'd call it). I wasn't at all sure of the weather (come on, it's England, we can have all seasons in an hour) so boots and leather jacket it was. I wolfed down some breakfast (thank you lifesaver of a boyfriend), grabbed my Kindle for some light reading on the train (Little Women) shoved this and that into my bag and proceeded to train station with about 10-15 minutes to go. Note: This was during rush hour in York, i.e. very very busy indeed, particularly coming through one of the main roads into York... Still, I made it with about 5 minutes to spare (another big thank you to boyfriend who played taxis that morning) and flopped on the train for an hour and 5.

I met with Katherine at Middlesbrough station and we made our way to Redcar Rocks or Redcar 'Scars' as it is commonly known. We took a walk down the beach and set up just before the development of flood defence structures and just before the actual rocks.

Redcar Scars - flood defence development to the right

Behind where we took the bird surveys from - vertical pier, coastal area regeneration.

The scope was set up, binoculars were at hand and survey sheets were out - Katherine showed me how the methodology was actually done for the two hour survey (in summer, just one hour in winter was sufficient). It was important to do a bird count (species present and abundances of each) before the survey started. Species we were looking for included: cormorant, curlew, dunlin, knot, oystercatcher, purple sandpiper, redshank, ringed plover, sanderling, turnstone and then we could mark down other species. During the actual surveying of bird disturbances, we had to record the number of humans in and around the area, what they were doing (i.e. dog walking, angling, diving, bait digging, horse riding etc) and whether their activities disturbed any of the birds and to what extent. It was quite interesting anyway.
 

Redcar Scars - beautiful beach.

In the middle of our survey Catherine and Martin joined us from Natural England and I briefly introduced myself and we had a bit of a chat about the project. We then had a quick drive to another site where we could see the Corus Steelworks. They were pretty magnificent I have to admit. I didn't manage to get a photo of the whole site (or maybe I did, I'll have a root through my phone) but the whole of the area was covered (and I mean covered) in grass from the sand dunes. It was remarkable that a whole ecosystem, a stable ecosystem had successfully established on the waste products of such industry.

Redcar Corus Steelworks and the South Gare (I think?) sand dunes, an ecosystem built on the slag (waste products) from the industry.

We had a bit of a walk down Coatham Sands, Bran Sands and South Gare (it was extremely windy but pretty tranquil and the weather was perfect) and I really was in awe with the scenery. Unfortunately we arrived at this site at mid-tide so it was neither high or low tide. We couldn't actually do a survey due to this, however we did spot several hundred oystercatcher roosting on an exposed area of rock.

Once we had finished having a look around this site, we quickly piled in the car and head towards one of the booked rooms where we could meet Mike (also from Natural England), do the formal introductions to him and the rest of the team and discuss which direction I could take my placement. I still need to have a proper think about this but I have plenty of time. I then sat through their meeting reviewing the methodology and assessing whether aspects of it needed changing (simplification, replicates, further investigations etc). We then discussed my project and what I need out of it regarding the MSc assignment (I said I didn't know, Rach just forgot to check the VLE didn't she? Silly thing!) and I sat through their discussion of Katherine's Code of Conduct (CoC) that she had formulated - it looked great! It was a voluntary CoC for all recreational users of the beach, highlighting the problems of their activity, recommendations for where they should do it (i.e. further up the beach, away from feeding birds etc) and other considerations. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it even if I did go a little quiet when it came to discussing improvements. Still, it was a great experience for me to sit through a typical EMS meeting like that.

I'm currently in the process of penning an e-mail to those I met on Tuesday thanking them for the day and giving them a little more information on what my project requires and although it states that this is not work experience I would definitely like to get some work experience alongside doing my project. I mean, hey, I might not get a chance like this again!

Project placement finalised, presentations to prepare for and a bit of Counting Crows.

I haven’t had much time of late to really update this thing… I’ve never fabricated myself to be this elite blogger, so don’t ever expect me to be anything like that. I honestly hope that any content you find in here doesn’t come with an air of pretence. It isn’t me, and it never will be.

Anyway, I’ve had a busy weekend going back to Manchester primarily to pick up my cat, but to also show someone rather special around Manchester (or bits of it… it was lovely anyway). I shared in my last post an interesting article that was found regarding shark fins… interesting (and important) given the aims to get the selling of, and use of shark fins banned worldwide; a movement that I undoubtedly 100% back. The post before that was what I really wanted to talk about…

On Friday I mentioned that I was just about to go and meet a woman about a summer placement, well… I met up with her and guess who’s going to be the Project Officer for the Teesside & Cleveland coast wading bird conservation project? You guessed it! It is only for a couple of months as part of my MSc however I will be getting a first look at how the companies are both working together (Natural England and INCA) in assessing the effects of human disturbance on wading bird populations on the coast, as well as mapping bird hotspots focussing on separate species, at different tide times, in different weather conditions. It’s going to be exciting, albeit a little scary. I need to really up my confidence and actually do this. I know I can do it, I know I’m intelligent enough to gather the required information; I just wish I was more confident in a) what I do and b) public speaking. We’re in the process of trying to muster together a meeting at the beginning of my reading week (week beginning 20^th Feb) which should be good. I’ll be meeting with Catherine from Natural England and Bob from INCA, as well as Katherine whom I met Friday.

I've never actually been to this area of England before (I know, I know, shameful...) but I'm looking forward to visiting the site and meeting the team.

Regarding public speaking, I’m going to have to get used to that a little sooner than the project placement presentation. In about two weeks I’ll have to help present a 40 minute presentation on some aspect of protected areas management (difficult, the module isn’t exactly what we thought it would be like) and then a week or so after the reading week I’ll have to help present another 30-40 minute presentation on some aspect of fisheries management (this should be a little easier and definitely more interested). I was a little gutted, the first seminar group had their titles last week and I would have loved to have done it – fisheries and bycatch – unfortunately with me going away at the weekend, having next Sunday off (Whitby!) and having the first seminar to prepare for, it just wasn’t doable. Still, I’m sure our topic will be just as interesting.

Must go, I’m sitting here singing away to Counting Crows when really I should be using my time to do some cleaning and my stats ‘R’ assignment.

Ciao! 

Summer placement; The impacts of recreational activities on overwintering and migratory waterbirds at the Teesmouth and Cleveland Coast European Marine Site

Right, I've got myself into a little bit of a dilemma now. I originally ushered this idea away since I didn't think I'd a) enjoy it or b) be efficient enough in GIS or 'R' to do it. Upon speaking to Julie and a little bit of guidance from those close to me I've given it a bit of thought. If I did this well, as in, I did the study to the best of my ability, I had good references, I ensured that I did GIS correctly and efficiently, then this could really be the start of something....

Anyway, it involves working with the project officer - Katherine Simpson - and the lead [marine] advisor - Dr Catherine Scott of Natural England - doing a series of statistical analyses on the survey results undertaken in order to assess the impacts of anthropogenic recreational activity on this site. I'll be mapping the recreational activities and bird locations in ArcGIS and I would be developing a map of recreational activities occurring throughout the EMS (European Marine Site), identifying hot spots of bird locations and assess the impacts according to this. I reckon there would be some degree of research (to predict the impact) as well as to set certain areas where human activity should be restricted...

I'm stuck in the middle of the two really... I need to decide between fun and not particularly relevant, or desk-based (where? York? Redcar? I don't know!) yet skill-building... I think the latter will prove more useful in life right?