The Club is delighted to organise a series of monthly (September-April) Club-wide online talks for members, in addition to local branch events. Not an SOC member? Find out more about membership and the many perks it offers, including access to the winter talks programme and the Club's quarterly journal Scottish Birds.
Katherine Booth Jones - Telling tales with tech: a glimpse into the secret lives of seabirds
For this month's talk, we will be joined by Katherine Booth Jones from the RSPB for what promises to be an engaging and eye-opening evening. Drawing on research from her work around the world, Katherine will reveal how innovative technology is uncovering the hidden lives of some of the world's most remarkable seabirds.
About the talk:
How can you find out where a seabird has been, using sunlight? How picky are petrels about species when choosing a mate on a desert island? How can you tell what a seabird has eaten recently? Where are city seagulls actually getting their supper? How deep does a Black Guillemot dive? How can you monitor seabirds that can’t be watched? Katherine will be exploring the diverse ways in which technology has opened up our understanding of the lives of seabirds, drawing from her experiences from the Indian Ocean all the way to Antarctica, via Northern Ireland.
About our speaker:
Determined to dedicate her life to seabirds, Katherine spent her early scientific career investigating Storm and Gadfly Petrels, using then-novel DNA and tracking technology. The exciting convergence between seabird ecology and technology led to a focus on tracking and monitoring, primarily of gulls and auks. Over 20 years, Katherine has accumulated an eclectic portfolio of experiences from around the world, including tracking, monitoring, diet study, remote-sensing and molecular ecology, providing evidence that improves our understanding of how environmental change and human activities impact seabird populations.
