Shannon joined the Vertebrate Pest Research Unit (Biosecurity and Food Safety) within the NSW Department of Primary Industries as a Research Officer in May 2015. Her primary role from 2015-2020 was assessing waterfowl populations in NSW to provide annual quotas to the Game Licensing Unit. The project also seeks to improve our understanding of life history traits for waterfowl species by using satellite trackers to assess individual movements and nestboxes to establish nesting success. Shannon is still involved in co-coordinating and carrying out helicopter-based aerial surveys of waterfowl using small farm dams as well as drone surveys on larger waterbodies for the annual counts. In addition, she is involved with trapping and tagging waterfowl in the Riverina region. Shannon also assists with the annual Eastern Aerial Waterbird Survey run by University of NSW which is carried out in a fixed wing plane and involves counting all waterbird species along 10 bands covering most of Eastern Australia.