I graduated in 2007 from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Environmental Science, during which I spent a year in New Zealand working as an intern for the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. While I was there I spent time working on a shore bird project and was fortunate enough to work on a colony of Buller's Albatross.
 
The research I was involved with in NZ gave me my first experience of working with and handling birds (although they are quite a bit bigger than parrots!). It was amazing, and I've been looking forward to the next oportunity to do some more work in this field. I have also worked on various conservation projects in Costa Rica including ecotourism and environmental education projects and work with Leatherback turtles.

I joined the project last year in 2008 as a field assistant and had a great time! I have kept my involvement with the project ever since, and this year I'm fortunate enough to return to lead the field work.

Since graduating I have been working in various outdoor related jobs and indulging in my favorite activities-fell running and climbing! I enjoy all sorts of climbing, mountaineering and other adventurous mountain sports such as mountain biking and snowboarding.

I'm pleased that I am able to use and apply the skills I've acquired through past experiences and even from my hobbies to contribute to the conservation of such a beautiful parrot! I am looking forward to continuing the field work this season and to look at some new research questions.

 

Hi everyone, I am Jonathon Dunn, a 22 year old Masters student and self-confessed parrot nut!  I am about to embark on a 3 month project with the team on Bonaire and I am going to use this blog to let Parrot Watch viewers see how I get on.  Firstly, I suppose I should tell you a little bit about myself:

My home town is the lovely and sunny Bude in Cornwall, UK but I am currently working towards an MSc in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation at Imperial College in London.  In brief, I enjoy eating dessert, keeping animals, playing the piano, walking, cycling, reading, popular science, being outdoors and of courseÖ. PARROTS! 

Before I did the whole student thing, I used to keep Senegal parrots, Sun Conures and a whole bunch of Australian parakeets ranging from Golden-mantled Rosellas to Turquoisines at home in Cornwall.  It was quite a menagerie at times!  I was always very interested in birds as a child ñ I suppose it was my Dad that started me off with some Zebra finches and it sort of snowballed from there. Given this birdy background, I suppose it will come as no great surprise that I decided that Biology was the way to go. I later studied Natural Sciences, specialising in Zoology, at the University of Cambridge.  Whilst I was there, I conducted projects that looked at grasshoppers, black-headed gulls and hawfinches among other things, but secretly, I was hankering after a parrot project!

There is just something about parrots that fascinates me: the bright colours, the intelligence and the tropical places where they live.  I love it!  They are a really special group of birds on par with the great apes and like the great apes, they are also at a great risk of extinction.  I hope to use my biological training to help the team as best as I can to gain valuable data about the Lora population in Bonaire that can help safeguard their future.  In return, I aim to learn more about parrots in the wild as well as gaining lots of valuable new skills that will help me in the future.  In my following blog posts, I will explain what I hope to study in more detail, and to try and show some of the highs and the lows of parrot fieldwork!