Thanks to the FLMNH Travel Award, in early December I found myself on my way to my first ever British Ecological Society annual meeting in Liverpool, UK. It’s surprising that it was my first BES, given that I’m a British ecologist. Perhaps equally surprising, considering my love of the Beatles (and again, because I’m from the UK), is the fact that it was my first visit to Liverpool! I’m certainly guilty of not exploring things on my own doorstep in favor of looking further afield. In my defense, I study tropical birds, which are not especially prevalent in rural East Sussex. Specifically, I was on my way to present my poster, entitled “The Effects of Seasonal Flooding on Understory and Terrestrial Birds of Amazonian Peru.”

I must admit, living in Florida, there are a few things I miss about the UK. Ready access to good cheese, people knowing how to use roundabouts (traffic circles, if you must), and of course, train travel! Seriously, the lack of rail networks across much of the US will never cease to boggle my mind. With Claudia, my partner and fellow BES attendee, I set off bright and early by train from London Euston and was rewarded with a beautiful sunrise over the misty rolling hills of southern England. Ah, topography – I miss that too.

The conference venue is ideally positioned in a great part of town, the Royal Albert Dock. It would be an understatement to say that Liverpool’s docks have a lot of history, and there are many fascinating buildings and museums to check out, all within walking distance of the conference and our (slightly less historic) hotel. We took the obligatory photo with the Beatles statue, and learned about the city’s fascinating maritime history in the appropriately-, if somewhat unimaginatively-named Museum of Liverpool. Then it was conference time!

My poster session was the evening of the first full day. Complimentary libations were provided – always a good start. Luckily, my “just put lots of bird pictures on it” strategy worked to lure people in, and I ended up having some great conversations. Who doesn’t love a tinamou, after all? Discussions revolved mostly around the use of passive acoustic monitoring and machine learning, which feature heavily in my work. I’m using these methods to listen out for shifts in the structure of bird community during seasonal flooding. Well… in reality, I’ve been finding out what happens to these communities when the floods almost completely fail, as they have for the last two years, since I started collecting data. No big deal, it’s only the entire premise behind my thesis. It will definitely all work out. Another glass of wine? Sure! In all seriousness, I’m hopeful that the acoustic data I’m collecting will act as a baseline for how these communities might look under continued climate change, where flood patterns are undergoing dramatic in the Amazon. Less flood-induced movements of birds could have knock on effects for the whole ecosystem.

The number of talks (even entire sessions) devoted to acoustic monitoring and machine learning reminded me that I’m in a truly exciting field! It was inspiring to see so much great work on display from my neck of the academic woods. At one point, I missed not one, but two acoustics-based talks because I was attending a third. This was a shame, and perhaps slightly poor scheduling, but it also reflected the abundance of exciting stuff being done right now in this field. Researchers are listening to everything from the inside of beehives to ponds in the Scottish highlands to soil. That’s right, soil ecoacoustics is a thing – look it up! Wherever sound is being produced, you can bet someone somewhere has microphones pointed at it in order to answer some cool questions about its producer.

Of course, the conference was also a great chance to hang out with friends, both old and new. A researcher I met at the lodge where I conduct fieldwork gave a fantastic talk on the ridiculously cute Pygmy Marmoset. UF’s very own Priyanka Hariharan presented an excellent talk about the birds of India’s Western Ghats. There was a compelling session on evidence-based conservation chaired by a long-time friend I met in Panama while working on a job for someone I had met in Mongolia. How fortunate I am to be able to travel to these places and maintain connections with people from all over the world! Plus, I’ve finally been to Liverpool! For that, and for the opportunity to attend the fantastic BES conference, I thank the FLMNH travel award committee and Amber Borrero for efficiently processing my travel.


Nicholas Gardner is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of Biology, advised by Dr. Scott Robinson, Katharine Ordway Professor of Ecosystem Conservation and Eminent Scholar here at the Florida Museum.


The 2024 Fall Student Travel Awards are supported by the FLMNH Department of Natural History, including funds from the Louis C. and Jane Gapenski Endowed Fellowship and the B.J. and Eve Wilder Endowment. If you would like to help support this fund for future student awards, please go to:

Louis C. and Jane Gapenski Endowed Fellowship
B.J. and Eve Wilder Endowment