I was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. After completing an honors degree in Zoology at University College Dublin in 1982, my quest for knowledge and new places led me to a Ph.D. scholarship at the Australian National University in Canberra. I studied the behavior and ecology of bats for four long dark years, before moving to tropical Queensland and back to my first love, BIRDS! I taught at James Cook University before arriving at SFS in 1988 to teach ecology. A five year stint in Cairns was spent working in the ecotourism industry, consulting for National Parks and Wildlife Service in the Cairns and Cape York areas, and getting a dog. I moved back to SFS in early 1994 and now teach ecology again, as well as researching bird ecology in the Atherton Tablelands area. .