Sophie Mowbray Placement – Alderney Wildlife Trust
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From March to May 2025, I completed an Envision funded placement with Alderney Wildlife Trust. Alderney is one of the Channel Islands, just three miles by one and a half miles in size, and I was lucky enough to spend the spring living and working there whilst on my placement. Alderney Wildlife Trust is one of the 46 wildlife trusts across Britain, and have the mission of championing, studying and protecting Alderney’s wildlife.
I predominantly worked with the ecology team at the trust whilst on my placement, which was really interesting to see what ecological data is collected, and how it is directly fed into the monitoring, protection and conservation work that the trust does. My main project whilst on the placement focussed on the sand dune ecosystems on the island, conducting a condition assessment. This involved developing a field monitoring plan for the dunes, and using aerial photographs of the island to map historical changes in the extent of the dunes. Mapping the dunes was a really great opportunity for me to further my GIS analysis skills, and I learnt many new techniques including using supervised image classification, and 3D mapping which will be very useful for my own future work. The report that I wrote on my findings will be used to inform sand dune management on the island going forward, and will contribute to the Alderney State of Nature project.
Alongside this main project on the sand dunes, I was also able to get involved in a number of other projects and surveys that the ecology team do, including rock pool surveys for green ormers (a type of sea snail), nighttime drone surveys to monitor rat activity, slow worm reptile refugia surveys, butterfly transects, eelgrass bed condition surveys and helping to catalogue moth specimens at the local museum. I also had the opportunity to improve my moth identification skills as we did weekly moth traps at the farm, and I ticked off a couple of new butterfly species (the Large Tortoiseshell and Glanville Fritillary) which I’d never seen before!
Alderney is home to a number of seabird populations, including puffins, gannets, guillemots and razorbills. It was really interesting to learn about how populations of these species are monitored, especially when they are on remote islands with limited access, and drone or aeroplane surveys are required. On the very first day of my placement, I was able to take a boat to visit Burhou, an uninhabited island off the coast of Alderney, to help with the installation of solar panels and cameras to monitor the puffin populations in the breeding season. I was also fortunate to be able to go on a number of other boat trips to get to see the bird life up close – Alderney is home to over 8,000 pairs of northern gannets, which are just the most amazing sight to see and hear!
As well as getting involved with the ecology team, I also helped out with the conservation and reserves management team, and got to try and learn lots of new skills, including helping to move herds of cattle, building steps and maintaining footpaths, weaving willow fences, painting signs and benches, and planting trees. I really enjoyed seeing the more practical side to conservation and managing nature reserves, as this is something I’m keen to learn more about as the ecological research I do in my PhD should hopefully lead to practical land management recommendations.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time on my placement, and learnt a lot. My PhD research by nature is quite niche and focusses on just a few species of butterflies, so I really enjoyed the diversity of surveys and work that I was able to get involved in. It was really fascinating to learn more about the role and responsibilities of an ecologist working within the conservation charity sector, as this is something I think I am keen to pursue after my PhD. It was also really interesting to see conservation in the island context, and the additional challenges and benefits being in a remote location with a small community brings. It was great to work alongside such knowledgeable and enthusiastic people at Alderney Wildlife Trust, and I am very grateful to have worked with such a welcoming and friendly team. I am also very grateful to Envision for providing the funding and guidance to allow me to complete this placement, and would highly encourage others to take the opportunity to complete a placement if they can.
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