Much to my surprise, I visited this website today only to see I hadn’t updated it in over a year. For shame!
Lots has happened in that period of time. In August of last year, my wife and I welcomed our second daughter, Rosie. She has been a joy to have around: healthy, happy, and a miraculous sleeper (so far), .
I took seven months of parental leave, from February to August, 2022. It was great to have so much time to spend with Rosie. Compared to parental leave with daughter #1, this was more protracted but also busier, because of course when baby #2 comes along, baby #1 (aka big kid #1) still needs attention. A nice thing about the leave was that it spanned the entire summer, which meant I got to spend lots of time outside. Highlights included a fair bit of birding around town and a wonderful camping trip to Drumheller to cap off the summer.
Toward the end of my parental leave, I was offered and accepted a job as a Species at Risk Habitat Specialist with the Government of Alberta. So, rather than returning to my old job after parental leave, I started a new one. It’s been an adjustment moving from a research job to the government, but it seems to be a great team environment, which has made the transition easier. The work has been challenging, but I anticipate lots of opportunities to move the needle on conservation issues in the province.
I’ll try to keep this page updated going forward if and when new research-related items come out.