Baker Consultants

Baker Consultants Welcomes Dr. Ollie Metcalf to the Team

We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Ollie Metcalf, ornithologist and ecoacoustics expert, has joined the team as a Senior Ecologist this week, coming on board to help us develop our bioacoustic and ornithology services.

Ollie is a highly respected researcher who has been involved in developing new techniques for applying ecoacoustic methods for assessing biodiversity in a range of settings. Most recently, he was the lead author for UKAN+’s recent Good Practice Guidelines for Long-Term Ecoacoustic Monitoring in the UK, where he worked closely with our Director of Bioacoustics, Dr. Carlos Abrahams, to publish this valuable new document.

Prior to his recent academic roles, Ollie has worked as an ornithologist, an Ecological Clerk of Works and as a self-employed consultant, where he carried-out a range of bird surveys and ecological assessments. He also has experience in completing breeding, vantage point and wintering bird surveys. In addition to that, he has also completed a number of species and activity-specific surveys for both nocturnal and Schedule 1 birds across the UK.

Ollie will be using his knowledge and experience to help us advance our existing services through developing new ways for using both traditional and cutting-edge ecoacoustics techniques for our ecological assessments and monitoring work.

Managing Director, Andrew Baker, commented, “We are really excited to add Ollie’s specialist skills to our growing ecoacoustics team. His knowledge and experience will help us to keep growing our innovative service in this rapidly expanding sector. We are continually looking to adapt the existing tools that are widely used for bats into new areas such as enhanced bird surveys and wider soundscape assessments. Ollie’s scientific rigour and technical knowledge will also help our current research project, which is looking into the use of ecoacoustics for measuring and monitoring soil health; an approach which will help our clients avoid the need for expensive sampling and lab analysis.”

If you would like to discuss how ecoacoustics could be used to support your projects, then please get in touch via ecoacoustics@bakerconsultants.co.uk or call us on 01629 593 958.