Catching Up pt 1

As you will have noticed, I haven’t posted in a little while. I’ve been cracking on with the fun that is writing job applications and whenever I’ve not being doing that, I have been trying to be away from the laptop – whether it’s attending events and exhibitions, or getting out and seeing wildlife.

So over the next few days, I shall try to play catch-up and fill you in on what I’ve been up with a couple of blog posts that will bring this blog up to date. And then spring will really be underway, and I shall be blogging, tweeting and Facebook-ing galore about wildlife and spring!

Thanks to the wonderfulness that is Lucy McRobert and A Focus On Nature, I was able to attend a book launch at Portcullis House for Tony Juniper‘s new book “What Nature Does Britain“. It was lovely to meet a range of new people and hear more about the book (of which I got a free signed copy – as a bookworm with no funds I was thrilled).

The event consisted of a lot of mingling – I felt a little out of place as most of the attendees were directors / chief executives of various Wildlife Trusts, but I found a couple of people I knew and then managed to talk to some new people. The book was introduced by Zac Goldsmith MP (who actually seemed like a nice politician! I was pleasantly surprised!), followed by Stephanie Hilborne (Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts). Then of course, Tony Juniper spoke to us about the book – where the inspiration for it came from, why it was needed and some key points from it.

Below are a variety of photos taken at the event, (c) Chris Woods / the Wildlife Trusts.

Following on from this, I returned to my favourite topic – moths!! I had come across the Garden Moth Scheme previously, but hadn’t been able to take part. As someone at the start of my conservation career, I move around a lot so wouldn’t have been able to contribute. However, I decided to head over to their conference to learn more about it and to hear some other interesting talks – the Rothamsted insect survey and insect pheromones for example. A number of book stalls were there, as was Izumi Segawa with her amazing Hachiware Art creations. The photos below were taken by Dave Grundy (who incidentally runs moths courses).

My next post shall start to cover some of the wildlife I’ve seen in the last month or so, and what with spring beginning to get itself underway, there are some exciting sightings to report!