Additional Survey Experience & Skills

  • Presence/absence surveys for bats.
  • Considerable experience with the use of the Bat Box III and familiar with the echolocation and behaviour of a wide range of british bats.
  • Voluntary bat census work for the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) including roost counts, colony counts, field surveys and waterway surveys.
  • Assistance with bat surveys at the London Wetland Centre.
  • Advcie for the Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) for Epsom and Ewell Borough Council.
  • Environmental ’watching briefs’ for a range of tasks including roads and the CTRL channel tunnel line.
  • Water Vole surveys.
  • General aquatic surveys (fish, plants, invertebrates etc.).
  • Assistance with the London Wetland Centre ’Wildlife Garden Week’.
  • Assistance with the rescue of the native White-clawed Crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes.
  • Checks for Japanese Knotweed, Giant Hogweed and alien aquatics like Azolla (Water Fern) and Crassula (New Zeland Stonecrop).
  • Assistance with film crews working on wildlife issues at home and abroad including wildlife SOS.
  • Advice to a range of groups on wildlife conservation including the Southern Wildlife Areas Network (SWAN), for people involved practically in nature conservation in southern England, and with the Lingfield Wildlife Reserves group.
  • Advanced BSAC (British Sub-aqua club) diver (CMAS **), qualified BSAC dive cox and AIDA 2 star (open water free diver). Also voluntary work for the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) has incuded the Seasearch survey that uses volunteer divers to monitor marine life and habitats.
  • Trained rifle handler with experience as a guide with a rifle in regions with Polar Bears (Svalbard) with relevant practice at a shooting range in Trondheim, Norway (Trondheim Jeger og Fiskeforening diploma). Havel also completed the Canadian Firearms Safety Course, and the BASC (British Association for Shooting and Conservation) Rifle Firearms Awareness training course in relation to handling, firing, cleaning and storing rifles. Have handled and fired (accurately) rifles from .17 calibre to .30-06 calibre. 
  • St John Ambulance 'acitivity' first aid qualified and also BSAC first aid for divers.
  • I am also a past committee memeber of the S.E. branch of the MCS.
  • With my experience abroad, my M.Sc in Oceangraphy, and my experience at sea, I'm familiar with marine surveys and identication, from seabirds to sharks, and marine mammals to coral reef fishes.
  • I was also a Co-author of SEALIFE - A Complete Guide to the Marine Environment and was behind the original concept of a detailed guide for seafarers. I also worked closely with the artist, Marc Dando, to illustrate dolphins from above, as they are seen when bow riding (few books do this!).
  • I am also a funder member of the Shark Trust.
  • My time as a guide in the Peruvian Amazon was invaluable to get an experience of the rainforest, how to look for and detect life in this ’hidden realm’, and to gain experience some of the leading rainforest scientists at work.    
  • Also refer to work abroad on my guiding/exploring page
  • And refer to my wildlife presentations on my talks page.