Megan

Hello my name is Megan. I’m a third year student from Cardiff University currently studying Zoology.

This year, as a sandwich year in my degree, I am lucky to be working at Parc Slip Nature Reserve, under the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales.

During the year I will be involved in many different projects for the Trust, I will be especially involved (along with Alex) in the Lapwing project.

I am a member of the Cardiff University Ornithology society and the university’s wildlife society which is linked to the Cardiff WTSWW group

I have a passion for wildlife, particularly birds, and through my degree I have been lucky to be involved in wildlife survey projects.

Megan and Alex

In my first year I had the opportunity to survey the diversity of bird, insects, amphibians, reptiles, bats and fish in the Rainforest of Guyana for one month. I saw some fantastic species from Giant River Otters to the Rainbow boa.

This summer I spent a week at Skokholm Island, off the coast of West Wales, studying the large puffin colony there.

I am very excited to be working for the Wildlife Trust this year, and look forward to seeing you around the reserve.

Alexandra

Hello!

My name’s Alexandra. I’m a third year Ecology Student at Cardiff University and I am local to the Ogmore Valley, Bridgend.

Here at Parc Slip, the staff of the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales have presented me with the fantastic opportunity to work with them for a year.

I have no doubt that the skills and knowledge I gain here will be invaluable towards my degree, and I hope to be able to give something back to these places, which have inspired me from a young age. I am especially looking forward to working with Megan on the Lapwing project.

Outside of the lecture theatres have been a volunteer at Bryngarw park for three years, and love attending wildlife walks and talks in the different reserves, especially if they are about bats. I think it’s safe to say that over the last two years I have become even more ‘batty’ as what started off as attending bat group walks and events led me into traveling on a six week expedition to Mexico in 2014. Whilst there I assisted in collecting data from an array of magnificent birds, bats, mammals, herpetofauna and habitats.

I was thrilled when I was invited back this summer to focus more on bats, and I was trained in net extraction and processing of the weird and wonderful bats in the Calakmul Biosphere reserve.

I am also a member of the Cardiff University DanceSport Team, and have competed in Latin and Ballroom dancing across Universities in the UK. So, if you see someone waltzing down the path, that may well be me.

I can’t wait to get started, and I look forward to meeting you in the reserve.