About me

I’m an early-career ornithologist with a particular passion for the movement ecology of migratory birds from an annual cycle perspective. My research combines animal tracking data, computational methods, and ecological theory to investigate the behavioural, demographic, and environmental mechanisms that shape bird migration, while aiming translating these fundamental ecological insights into tools for wildlife monitoring and conservation in the context of global change.

I also place great value on long-term citizen-science data. In addition to co-leading one of the world’s largest citizen-science raptor monitoring projects, I see citizen-science data both as an independent source of ecological insight and as an important data source to enrich animal tracking data.

While much of my research is quantitative, I’m a birder at heart and enjoy spending time in the field. Over the years, I’ve gained extensive field experience through standardized surveys of breeding and wintering birds, raptor and seabird migration counts, and the catching and ringing of waders and passerines.

Over the years, I have built an international network of collaborators across flyways, and I enjoy communicating my research to both scientific and non-scientific audiences.

Current work

I currently work as a Bird Ecologist at Waardenburg Ecology, where I analyse diverse ecological data, including GPS tracking data, ring resightings, and collision victim data, in the context of offshore wind energy development on the North Sea. In addition, I conduct aerial seabird surveys over the North Sea and contribute to ecological background reports for environmental impact assessments and scientific publications.

I also co-chair the board of Batumi Raptor Count, where I lead conservation projects, develop strategic initiatives and international partnerships, and secure funding for one of the world’s largest volunteer-based migration monitoring projects. The project monitors over one million raptors annually at a key bottleneck for soaring birds in the Republic of Georgia.

Additionally, I serve as the Dutch representative and a Management Committee Member of the EUFLYNET Cost Action, a European flyway research network dedicated to the conservation of migratory landbirds.

See the full list on the Current Work and Past Projects pages.

Education

Research, talks & media

• Publications — peer-reviewed articles, popular science writing, and conference proceedings.
• Lectures — conference talks and invited lectures.
• Media — interviews, guest blogs, and press mentions.

Get in touch

I’m based in the Randstad area, the Netherlands. Have a question, a collaboration idea, or want to talk about migratory birds? Get in touch.