Our Ornithology team had a busy year, continuing to grow from strength to strength in 2024 with regional survey teams based nationwide. As our internal team develops and grows, we are delighted to announce the appointment of established team member Tom Rea to the role of Project Ornithologist, managing our survey operations in the southwest of the country. We also welcomed two student interns from the University of Galway and Munster Technological University and two Graduate Ornithologists as part of MKO’s Graduate Programme. MKO is delighted to offer specialists in the discipline of Ornithology an opportunity to develop a sustainable and successful career on their passion in life.
During 2024, the team has continued to play an integral role in delivering onshore wind energy projects nationwide, contributing to several Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (EIARs) and collecting data at over 50 proposed and existing onshore wind farm sites over the year. In addition, survey work has continued on the onshore elements of several offshore wind energy projects and a number of lifetime extension and repowering projects for existing, operational wind farms to secure renewable energy supply into the future. Our operational bird monitoring team has continued to grow in collaboration with other MKO teams to provide before and after data for existing wind energy projects to inform best practices for future proposals.
Further collaboration with MKO Research in 2024 has involved Dr Susan Doyle, Senior Ornithologist, working on several work packages on the RE:Harrier Project, with some other team members gaining experience with this research project over the year also.
In addition, our Ornithology team was excited to collaborate with our Landscape and Visual team on drone surveys conducted under licence from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) for nesting hen harrier. The development of remote-sensing techniques for such applications provides an exciting opportunity to provide accurate information on bird activity with reduced risk of disturbance to sensitive receptors.
Training highlights for the team in 2024 included two in-house dedicated team building and training days including a sleety study trip to an operational wind farm to gain additional insights from planning, construction and operational perspectives. Team members also benefitted from external training courses in personal effectiveness, construction safety (safe pass) manual handling, and leadership and management training as part of the Emerging Leaders programme. MKO’s annual island trip to Rathlin Island was very popular with the Ornithology crew too!
Our Ornithology team has participated in some relevant conferences over the past year, including the CIEEM 2024 Irish Conference ‘Examining the Practical Impacts of Environmental Policy and Legislation on Ireland’s Ecology’, the British Ornithologists’ Union conference ‘Birds and net zero: mechanisms, impacts and solutions in the transition to clean energy’ and Wind Energy Ireland Annual Conference 2024, presenting at a workshop on the RE:HARRIER project. Our Ornithologists also attended the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) conference in Northern Ireland in November.
Our Ornithology team looks forward to 2025 to build on the growth and development of the team over the past year, continuing to build on our technical excellence and quality while working with colleagues and clients to successfully deliver key projects in the renewables, infrastructure, transport and conservation and heritage sectors.