✨ First paper published! ✨

currentprotocols.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

I’m so excited to share my first academic paper, now published in Current Protocols!! 🧬 This paper brings you through the metabarcoding process to study animal diets 🐦🦇 Huge thanks to my brilliant co-authors 💖

Officially Dr McConnell!

I can finally say I’m a doctor of tits and poop! 🐦💩 My PhD explored how urbanisation affects the diet of blue tits. Not suprisingly, city birds eat fattier, lower-quality food. What a journey it’s been, so many highs, lows, and moments I wasn’t sure I’d make it.

So chill so sauve. She's got this under control 💅🏻✨️

This sounds great! Having the gps tracking data will be so interesting. Looking forward to the results 😊

Just realised that the ancient DNA lab is called 007 😂 Brilliant, perfect for investigating DNA secrets

Hidden Causes of Variation in Offspring Reproductive Value: Negative Effects of Maternal Breeding Age on Offspring Telomere Length Persist Undiminished Across Multiple Generations | doi.org/10.1111/ele.... | Ecology Letters | #ornithology 🪶

Wow so many ants in the bolus! Do you notice any differences in diet between habitats?

Last week in the lab working on eDNA to uncover the pollinators of cocao 🍫 The gel bench: the suspense of knowing whether the PCR was successful 🫣

I'm Rachel, a conservation biologist 🤓 soon to be based in Northern Ireland☘️ Bird nerd here, just completed a PhD on blue tits and urbanisation and starting a job as a conservation officer with the RSPB 🐦

If you're passionate about research, nature, and the great outdoors, let’s connect! 😁