Meet the team (2019)

The 2019 Kilcoole Little Tern Conservation Project team:

(contact us at snewton@birdwatchireland.ie) 

Giles Christopher Johnson 

(Day Warden)

Chris is an experienced field ecologist, who gained much of his experience working across the savanna environments of Northern Australia. He has a BA and PhD from Trinity College Dublin: the latter focused on granivore relationships with intensive farming practices. Seabirds are new territory for him and he is delighted to be part of the Kilcoole Little Tern team. Chris was one of the wardens in the highly successful 2017 season, and is back for another.

Darren Ellis
(Day Warden)

Most recently Darren has worked as Public Relations and fundraising Support Officer for  BirdWatch Ireland and prior to that he coordinated the National Black Guillemot Survey 2018. He has an MSc. Biodiversity Conservation from Nottingham Trent University and a BSc. In Environmental Protection from IT Sligo. This will be Darren's first year working on the Little Tern Conservation Project and he is looking forward to meeting all the visitors to the project and hoping for a very productive year for the Little Terns and all of the other species that benefit from the protection of the reserve.

               
Cole Macey (Night Warden)

Originally from Somerset, Cole came to Ireland on holiday in 1996 and never left! He has been involved in the management and conservation of wildlife his entire life with a background in game keeping, forestry, farming and as a park ranger. This is Cole's tenth year as a night warden on the Kilcoole Little Tern project, where his main duties include overseeing the installation and maintenance of fencing, protecting the colony at night from mammalian predators and again from corvids early in the morning. He adheres religiously to the colony motto of "Always Alert, Always Ready!". Cole has also worked on BirdWatch Ireland projects on Tory Island (Donegal) and Puffin Island (Kerry).

Dr. Steve Newton (Project Co-ordinator)

Dr. Steve Newton is a Senior Conservation Officer for BirdWatch Ireland. He is responsible for seabird research, monitoring and colony management. This comprises coordinating, on an annual basis, the Irish input to the Seabird Monitoring Programme (UK-Ireland) and managing the Rockabill Roseate Tern and the Kilcoole Little Tern Projects. Steve organised the first quantitative survey of nocturnal petrels and shearwaters on west coast islands in 2000-2001 as part of the Seabird 2000 Project. He was also responsible for managing the BWI/NPWS Chough Survey and follow-up research programme (2002 to 2010), the NPWS/BWI Upland Bird Survey (2002-2004), and other work on upland habitats and their birds, including Hen Harrier and Red Grouse. He is a member of the all-Ireland team responsible for the 'Birds of Conservation Concern' process which reviews the Red, Amber and Green lists for Ireland and is a member of the Irish Rare Breeding Birds Panel.