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Overall Thoughts on Birdfair

As you will know from my blog posts this week, I had a fantastic, busy, inspiring, wonderful time at Birdfair. My earlier posts covered what I got up to on each day, but I wanted to do a post that looked at Birdfair overall and my thoughts on different aspects of it.

Exhibitors

Well I was blown away by the number of exhibitors! I knew there would be many, I had been forewarned. But I was still shocked and amazed, and I definitely didn’t manage to see them all! I did get to visit a number of key stalls that I wanted to – Richard Lewington in the Art Marquee, BBC Wildlife Magazine, Butterfly Conservation (of course!), amongst just a few. I was astounded by the number of wildlife holiday exhibitors, and could only daydream about such holidays. However, Matt and I did pick up a few leaflets on France and the Pyrenees, maybe in the near future?

For the food exhibitors, it was a touch expensive (1 crepe for £4.50?!). However, that was to be expected really. It’s a shame there was nowhere to get tap water (that I knew of!). How many plastic bottles were unnecessarily bought and discarded that weekend I wonder? I took two (reused) bottles of water with me each day, but still ended up having to buy a bottle when it was very hot on the Saturday.

Also, on the issue of food exhibitors and waste. I saw a LOT of plastic cups! True there was plastic recycling, but surely there must be better alternatives? Then again, maybe there aren’t?

It was fabulous to have a local produce marquee – super yummy baked bread, scrumptious cheese and, of course, the beer! Apparently this tent was new this year? I thoroughly recommend that it gets repeated at future Bird Fairs!

People

Gosh what a weekend it was for meeting people! Whether it was people I had met before and hadn’t seen for ages, people I had talked to on social media but not met in person, or people that I had heard of but never interacted with previously. I caught up with friends, and made new ones, met celebrities from the TV and the conservation world. Basically, I talked a lot! And it was fantastic! I didn’t manage to catch everyone that I wanted to of course, the weekend was too busy for that, I doubt I could’ve done so even if I hadn’t gone around stalls or gone to talks!

Sexism

There were three things I noticed at Birdfair.

  1. Prior to Birdfair, they were publicising their celebrities page. Do go take a look at it, and tell me what you see. Mostly men! There is one female featured (and she deserves to be, Angie Scott’s photos are incredible!), but there must be more than one female celebrity in conservation that would be willing to give talks at Birdfair? Do not read into this that I think the men featured don’t deserve to be featured, they definitely do! They are all incredibly inspiring and do so much good work. But where are the women?!
  2. This theme of “where are the women?!” continues with my analysis of the Main Events Marquee Schedule. Again, do go take a look at it. Incredible speakers – but out of all three days, only ONE speaker that’s presenting alone is female, AND she is right at the end of the schedule on Sunday! If you include Angie Scott’s joint talk with Jonathan Scott, that gets you to two female speakers. By this, I am not including the debates / quizzes where there are more than three contributors / contestants on stage.The other lecture marquees had a better ratio of male:female speakers, which is a good start.
  3. Apparently the bar and the craft beer is only of interest to “gentlemen”. According to the compere in the Main Events Marquee anyway. At the end of each talk I went to, he would direct the audience to exit via the side exits, noting that for the gentlemen they could find the craft beer in the local produce tent and the bar just outside. He did this a few times, and I got rather annoyed. Women like alcohol too thank you very much! I actually went up and spoke to him about it, and he graciously apologised for making such comments. However, he kind of spoilt it when he said something along the lines of “but it’s craft beer”, to which my response was something like “… and?”. It’s true, I personally don’t like beer, but I know many women that do, so don’t isolate half your audience. He took my comments into account and didn’t repeat his sexist remarks. In fact, he didn’t mention the alcohol again, which I thought was a shame. Why not still mention the alcohol but without the everyday sexism?

Regrets & Plans for next year

  • I didn’t meet Henry the Hen Harrier properly! I wandered past but was too shy to say hello or get my picture taken! Must do so in future!
  • Planning – next year I shall look into what books / artwork I particularly want, so that it is less mind-boggling as I wander around!
  • I would absolutely love to give a talk at Birdfair next year, and already have three potential topics in mind! So who knows, maybe next year I’ll be writing a review post from the point of view of a speaker?
  • All in all, I know that Birdfair is definitely booked into my diary for next year!

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dorset Wildlife Trust’s positions, strategies or opinions (or any other organisation or individuals for that matter).

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Birdfair – Day Three

Oh crumbs the last day of Birdfair! It had all gone by so quickly! And there was so much left that I wanted to do and see!

10.00am – Wildlife in Trust: Butterflies, Bugs & Assorted Beasties, Simon Phelps

First on the list was, of course, Simon’s talk on butterflies, bugs and assorted beasties for the Wildlife Trusts (though he now works for Butterfly Conservation). The room was packed out, and fittingly, he was giving the talk next to a display of butterflies. I learnt some interesting facts and figures from him, and was generally inspired to get out there and see insects. Even more so than usual!

Hanging around for the next talk at the Anglian Birdwatching Centre, I had a browse in the shop and a look at the interpretation (Chesil’s is better I think), and of course, I looked outside. Resulting (thanks to Sean Foote) in a birding lifer as there were three Black Terns flying about. Nice!

11.00am – A Vision for Nature: birds and wildlife need a a youth movement, Matt Williams

The clock struck 11 and Matt was up on stage. He was giving a talk about AFON’s project, Vision for Nature. I didn’t need to be there – he’d practiced the talk on me at least twice, and I’d read it an extra couple of times. But I went anyway of course! I’ve filmed it and it will be going up on his YouTube channel. As to be expected, it was thoroughly inspiring and awesome (especially as he did it without notes!), and there were some very good questions at the end!

12.00pm – The South African Big Year – My 365 Day Quest for 800 Species of Bird, John Kinghorn

We parted ways here as I wanted to see John Kinghorn speaking. John and I knew of each other through Next Generation Birders, but had never met in person, so it was great to meet. We discussed birds, the universe and everything. He had already ticked a few bird lifers off on his trip to the UK, but I managed to show him an insect lifer (Roesel’s Bush-Cricket, Metrioptera roeselii). His accent (and talk) made me very nostalgic for South Africa!

12.30pm – Hedgehogs and Hedgehog Street, why connectivity matters, Hugh Warwick

I sidled over to the next marquee to hear the hedgehog-enthusiast (and author of hedgehog books), Hugh Warwick speaking about (naturally) hedgehogs. I met Hugh last year at the AFON conference and was very impressed and amused by him. He is a great speaker and argues his case well. Plus, he was talking about hedgehogs which always helps.

1.00pm – Birdless Pointbrain, chaired by Nigel Redman, assisted by Neil Glenn

Last event of the day, as I needed to head back to Dorset for work the next day. I could’ve (should’ve?) left earlier but I absolutely had to stay to see Birdless Pointbrain, which was hilarious! Well done Neil for putting it together, and thanks for giving AFON a shout-out! Some of the AFON group (including myself) assisted with being the 100 people to whom the questions were asked. The celebrities were paired with Birdfair volunteers which was really nice.

And then it was time to head back to Dorset! Via Cambridge. Luckily I was still buzzing from the awesomeness of Birdfair so wasn’t too sad, and I could begin to come to terms with the weekend and all that had happened.

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dorset Wildlife Trust’s positions, strategies or opinions (or any other organisation or individuals for that matter).

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Birdfair – Day Two

10.00am (ish) – Adventures with British Butterflies, Matthew Oates

Despite car issues keeping us in Oakham for a little while, we managed to get to Birdfair in time for me to catch the end of Matthew Oates’ talk on his latest book, In Pursuit of Butterflies. If you follow me on Twitter, you may remember me buying this earlier in the year, it’s a wonderful read and I thoroughly recommend it. I managed to think of a decent question to ask at the end (regarding climate change and butterflies), and to get my book signed! I have met Matthew before at various moth/butterfly events so it was lovely to see him again, and to hear him speak about his book.

11.00am – A Question of Stork, chaired by Stephen Moss

I didn’t have far to go for the next event I wanted to go to, just to the next tent! Two teams were pitted against each other to test their birding knowledge, including a brilliant charades round. Stephen Moss was chairing, and was very funny to listen to. One of my favourite rounds was “What happened next?” They watched clips of Bill Oddie and had to guess what happened next – full points if they got it correct (they didn’t), a few points if their answers were incorrect but funny.

Cue some more wandering around … another book bought (Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Ireland by Richard Lewington, 2015), more people spoken to and scrumptious food eaten. I managed to catch up with the BBC Wildlife Magazine folk, who I talk to on Twitter. It was lovely to meet them in person (a recurring theme!) and have chat. Before I knew it, it was mid-afternoon and I had to be somewhere! I also saw a harvestman (no idea of species!) and heard Matt fluently speaking in Malay, Spanish AND French – super impressive!

3.30pm – A Focus On Nature, Bethany Aucott

That somewhere was Lecture Marquee 3 for Beth’s talk on A Focus On Nature. Truthfully, I didn’t need to go … I know what AFON is! However, I wanted to to support Beth and it was good to have all the AFON projects and opportunities discussed in one place.

4.00pm – Could there be 1,000 species near your home?, Andy Musgrove

I stayed in LM3 for Andy Musgrove’s talk, as I have begun pan-species listing and was intrigued by the idea of listing 1000 species in 1km2. He has since continued beyond the 1000, but I can’t remember what number he said he had got to. Another couple of thousand at least! I need to get some identification practice in I think, so as to build up my numbers of fungi / lichens / beetles / bugs / plants … (I’ve got a lot of work ahead!).

5.oopm – Wildlife In Trust: A Mammal-Watcher’s Guide, Lucy McRobert

Just around the corner for Lucy McRobert’s talk for the Wildlife Trusts on seeing mammals in the UK. As with the day before, she was an excellent speaker and now I feel inspired to see even more of our mammals (I’m doing quite well on 33)! Particularly the whales, I’ve never ever seen a whale, either in the UK or abroad! Maybe a wildlife resolution for the future?

5.30pm – Children’s Art Mural for AFON / NGB meet-up

An end to the second day at Birdfair and the youth were gathering … Not to get up to trouble or (much) mischief, but for a drink and natter, and to meet each other! It was a combination of AFON and Next Generation Birders (which I am also part of), including some new faces which was grand! Look how many of us there were! Also, notice my cute skirt! Numpkin that I am, I only packed trousers, not expecting hot weather! I bought the skirt from a charity shop whilst the car issues were getting solved!

Photo by Katie Nethercoat

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dorset Wildlife Trust’s positions, strategies or opinions (or any other organisation or individuals for that matter).

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Birdfair – Day One

It has taken me a couple of days to come to terms with Birdfair. And by that, I mean the sheer amount of awesomeness packed into just three days. I’m going to attempt to describe my experience of Birdfair, but I really don’t think I’ll do it justice!

Day One

I travelled up from Cambridge with Matt and Tom, who had to put up with my growing excitement. Though they were partially to blame – both of them had been to Birdfair previously and were telling me what, and who, they had seen before. Following the signs directing us to the Fair, we found the queue to get in. As naturalists we used the opportunity to look out the car windows at surrounding wildlife (no photos I’m afraid).

We drove past the shiny new Volunteer Training Centre that had be opened by Sir David Attenborough last month for the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. Apparently “the centre will provide support and training for volunteers in conservation, countryside and heritage skills.” I shall keep an eye on what they get up to, it sounds interesting!

And then, it was Birdfair itself and all that comes with it! We were soon bumping into familiar faces and meeting some faces who were familiar from the internet but now appearing in the real world, and the planning which events to go to across the weekend.

11.15am – Bug Walk, Brian Eversham & Ryan Clark (the Wildlife Trusts)

Prior to even arriving at Birdfair, I absolutely knew I had to go on this Bug Walk. I often talk about insects and invertebrates with Brian on Twitter, and wanted to support Ryan as this was his first Birdfair event he had assisted with (I think?). Armed with sweep nets and pots, we headed out into a nearby meadow where Brian demonstrated how to use the net before letting us loose! It wasn’t the warmest of days, but there were plenty of invertebrates to be found – spiders, ladybirds, bees, beetles and more! I haven’t labelled the species on any of my photos as Ryan is putting together a bugs at Birdfair ID quiz for A Focus On Nature.

Post-bug walk provided an opportunity to do some wandering and the beginning of working out how to decide what to buy. There was SO MUCH – whole libraries’ worth of books, optical equipment, exquisite illustrations, clothing, stunning photographs, carvings, memberships, holidays, and more! Matt and I began with a couple of books – Inglorious and Behind the Binoculars, as Mark Avery and Keith Betton were both doing signings.

1.15pm – Moth Trapping – Live on the big screen, Phil Sterling & Richard Lewington

A glance at the time and it was time to head over to the Events Marquee as moths were in the limelight (well spotlight). Phil Sterling and Richard Lewington were opening a moth trap at the front, and they had some lovely species – Dusky Thorn (Ennomos fuscantaria), Canary-shouldered Thorn (one of my favourites! Ennomos alniaria), Eyed Hawk-Moth (stunning! Smerinthus ocellata), plus some escapees (particularly the Large Yellow Underwings (Noctua pronuba), surprise surprise!).

Exiting out the side of the tent, we found the craft beer, woohoo! I’ve come across From the Notebook on social media as various naturalists excitedly tweet about beer that has wildlife on it!!!! Sadly, I still don’t like beer, but I liked the designs, and both Matt and Pete liked the beer.

 

More wanderings, including via the Butterfly Conservation stand  of course – cue a good chat with Martin Warren, Tony Davies, Douglas Boyes, and Nick Baker! I was wearing my H&M moths shirt and Nick Baker was very impressed with it, which was rather awesome. Also at the BC stand, I picked up a copy of the latest Moths Count newsletter, in which I have an article!

I also went via the Art Mural (which was being added to across the weekend) and, of course, the Children’s Art Mural that A Focus On Nature run. Just before the last event of the day, I managed to meet up with Phil Sterling. We live just around the corner from each other in Dorset, but hadn’t managed to meet up yet this year, so it was good to catch-up. He had brought some cool caterpillars along, and my query to get better lighting on them (for taking photographs) led to a bit of a gathering just outside the marquee as passerbys noticed the caterpillars!

6pm – RSPB Birders Lecture in association with British Birds

Crikey, 6pm already! Time to run over to one of the lecture marquees in order to catch the RSPB Birders Lecture in association with British Birds! Introduced by Stuart Housden (Director of RSPB Scotland), four birders were competing for the title of ‘Best ever day’. We heard from the marvellous Bill Oddie, the ever-inspirational Lucy McRobert, the wonderful Adam Rowlands and the legendary Ian Wallace. I was slightly biased towards Lucy winning of course, but was blown away by Ian Wallace’s account. He had made it into a spectacular play, which he performed with flair and style. As to be expected, he won.

A drinks reception afterwards, hosted by RSPB, provided another opportunity to chatting with fellow A Focus On Nature members, and other Birdfair attendees. I even spoke to Bill Oddie without getting too starstruck! And so, the end of the first day, and I was exhausted, bewildered and overwhelmed. What would the second day bring?

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dorset Wildlife Trust’s positions, strategies or opinions (or any other organisation or individuals for that matter).

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Pre-Birdfair Wildlife Adventures

The week was all about Birdfair, except that I had four days before it began. Which, to be fair, were pretty awesome days in themselves. So I shall cover those before I even attempt to write about Birdfair – which is going to require a separate post(s?!).

It began on a lunchtime wander at Lorton, with the realisation that autumn has started to creep upon us … quite a few of the flowers are gone, and berries decorate the bushes instead. However, there are still some butterflies flitting about! Plus it was a warm sunny day in which I could take yet more photos of the Wasp Spiders (Argiope bruennichi) which are now in my favourite animals list (a long list I’ll admit).

Mid-week led to the final preparations and unveiling of our hand-printed animal (remember last week’s fun?) – a basking shark for Weymouth Carnival! Due to my back issues (can’t carry anything heavy) AND my short stature (causing lopsidedness), I was unable to help with carrying the shark. However, that was ok with me as I got to be jellyfish! A dancing one at that! Despite the rain and wind, we had a fantastic time, but we are still waiting to hear who came first out of the walking floats, sure it had to be us?!

Thursday was a little bit of a struggle for us at Lorton and Chesil – we were all trying to recover from Carnival. It was surprisingly tiring, and the weather had undoubtable made it worse. At Lorton, the rain was continuing and I had to lead a butterfly activity! Luckily I had plenty of activities to replace looking for butterflies – including making a butterfly mask using one of the resources on the Wildlife Watch website. What do you think?

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dorset Wildlife Trust’s positions, strategies or opinions (or any other organisation or individuals for that matter).

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Pain, but no gain (only partially true)

Strictly speaking, the title is not true. I’ve had very little pain this week, and a lot of gain, but you’ll see later why the title. As I write, I am in a sickeningly “I love life” mood. I want to take a moment to examine this mood. As a sufferer of both Seasonal Affective Disorder and, more recently, bouts of depression, spending time outdoors in the sunshine and talking to people (aka my job!) is bound to have a positive effect on me. People can often underestimate how much nature can help us, not least with our mental health. We are intricately connected with nature, even with today’s technological distractions. Taking a moment, even just a little one every now and then, to appreciate nature can benefit you.

Back to my week. It began with paint. An odd beginning to the week one might say, but I work in environmental education (/community engagement) and my tasks are varied! For the first couple of days this week, I was tasked with ensuring that a big roll of white fabric got covered in handprints! I relished the task, and got involved with an appropriate amount of enthusiasm (i.e. getting my hands covered in paint and encouraging others to do as as well). Soon enough, and with help from volunteers, centre visitors and even Taste* cafe staff, the sheet was covered. And my hands were blue no matter how much I scrubbed them! And the purpose of this? Well, that shall remain a surprise until the next blog post.

A midweek lunchtime stroll on Chesil Beach resulted (as usual) in a quick beach clean! I just hate seeing litter on the beach (and elsewhere!). So I am continuing well with that wildlife resolution!

We sailed off into the sunset, almost literally, when The Fleet Observer took some centre volunteers (and a couple of DWT staff) out on a trip. I know, I know, I went on a trip only a couple of weeks ago! But I do so love going out on the boat and we always see something fun. This time I even managed to get some good photos of the hares (Lepus europaeus), and some sunset photos too, so I was particularly pleased.

Inland to Lorton, and I was leading our Caterpillar Kids session on grasshoppers and crickets! What great fun it was, and we had some children that were absolutely brilliant at catching them! I have realised that there aren’t actually that many grasshoppers and crickets, so I didn’t feel too daunted in trying to identify a couple. I got them wrong mind, but I gave it a go and I shall continue to try, which is the important thing!

I must apologise here to the residents of Weymouth and the surrounding areas. The torrential rain on Friday was my fault. I had a day off you see. However, I wasn’t too put out as it provided me with a decent opportunity to sort through some photos and the like. The weekend dawned bright and clear, but Weymouth did soon cloud over (unlike Portland which stayed sunny all day, grr!). I was meant to be leading a reptile walk at Lorton, but the slight chill in the air made me dubious that we would find any. So I turned it into a general nature walk and we had a fantastic time! A good variety of wildlife was seen, including my first Wasp Spiders (Argiope bruennichi) which are incredibly awesome! I also picked up a bush-cricket and much to the amusement of everyone there, yelled in startlement when it bit me! The cheeky thing (though I don’t blame it)! I can’t say which species it was, as the unexpected pain caused me to throw it into the grass. Oops! Note to self – it isn’t just Great Green Bush Crickets (Tettigonia viridissima) that bite! The end of the walk ended on a reptile sighting, as we found two baby slow worms, but they slithered away before I got photos. I caught one the following day, prompting it to defecate on me – charming! – but again no photo I’m afraid.

A quick evening dash up to Portland Bird Observatory as Josie Hewitt was visiting and I wanted to say hi. I also got to see this lovely Painted Lady  (Vanessa cardui) which was very obliging with letting me take photos. I even persuaded it to sit on my finger, but naturally it flew off before I could actually take a photo of it doing so! I also saw a Hummingbird Hawk-Moth (Macroglossum stellatarum), but that was not at all obliging and disappeared before I could even grab my camera.

The weekend, and thus the week, drew to an end. With sunshine above, and no big plans for the evening, I just had to go for another wildlife wander in Lorton. I looked for the Wasp Spiders again, and found two, as well as some galls on oak (presumably caused by a parasitic wasp?).

A note on Wasp Spiders. It is actually only the female that has the stunning stripes. The male is smaller and brown, I think there is a male in one of the photos above. Apparently, the male has to wait until the female reaches her mature form, make the most of her soft jaws, and then go into mate with her. Even so, a number of them do get eaten still! As one of the orb-weaving spiders, you can see the white zig-zag in her web, which is called a stabilimentum. According to the Wildlife Trusts webpage on them, there is no known function to this stabilimentum.

Next week’s post is likely to be delayed as I shall be travelling back from BirdFair (which is going to be amazing!). Let me know if you’re going and would like to meet up!

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dorset Wildlife Trust’s positions, strategies or opinions (or any other organisation or individuals for that matter).

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When two become one

My camera has been returned to me! Woohoo! It feels good to have it back again, I feel like I’m whole again. Ok, maybe that is going too far, but it’s not far off! I have taken a couple of hundred photos since it arrived back, haha!

Not much wildlife worth noting for during the week. I did have a fab school group at Chesil on one of the days mind. Some KS3 (Yrs7-9) students from a local school looking for seashore creatures. A couple of the girls were particularly fascinated by the washed up Barrel Jellyfish (Rhizostoma pulmo). As the day was a bit of a jolly for them, I didn’t make them come down the rest of the beach with us. And I’m glad I didn’t, because when we rejoined them 15 minutes later, I discovered they had been watching a documentary on jellyfish reproduction on one of their phones!

Later in the week, I was visited by a friend who I’ve known for years but hadn’t seen for a few months. Trying to think of something fun for us to do, I booked us onto a Fleet Observer trip. It was great fun! Good views of the Little Terns (Sternula albifrons), plus we saw one of the Hares (Lepus europaeus). I am always surprised to see the hares on Chesil Beach! I didn’t manage to get a photo of it though.

Following a yummy lunch in Fortuneswell, we headed up to King Barrow Quarries Nature Reserve as it had been too long since I’d been there (i.e. more than a week!). Plus, I was hoping to get two new year ticks for my butterfly list. It was really blustery, but the quarries provided some sheltered areas that were filled with a nice variety of butterflies – including the wonderful Marbled White (Melanargia galathea) and even a Silver-studded Blue (Plebejus argus). Plus a Great Green Bush Cricket (Tettigonia viridissima) that I managed to catch – crikey, they really are big crickets, their name is well suited!

We also saw my favourite butterfly, the Chalkhill Blue (Polyommatus coridon)! What an absolutely beautiful butterfly it is!

Feeling windblown and warm from sun, we went over to the Portland Bird Observatory. The smallness of the world was proved when I met someone there who I had originally met in Wales back in 2011-2012 whilst on placement with the Field Studies Council! We had a lovely catch-up and he pointed in the direction of Puss Moth caterpillars that had been found not far from the Obs. With a bit of searching, my friend and I managed to find one of them, and thank goodness we did! What a fantastic caterpillar it is! I couldn’t believe how chunky it was, so I took a photo of my thumb next to it as proof of its size.

This weekend, the theme at Lorton was butterflies! I led my first ever proper butterfly walk (i.e. to paying members of the public, not foisting butterfly info onto friends/family)! Despite the nerves, it went well – we saw most of the butterflies that we get at Lorton. I also rounded out the walk to include some of the wildflowers that the butterflies feed on, plus stopping by the pond to see what was about there.

I was eye-ing up the antennae of the skippers, having told the group about the difference between Small (Thymelicus sylvestris) and Essex  (T.lineola) Skippers. The Small has orange/brown tips to their antennae, whereas the Essex has black tips. I didn’t see any Essex on the walk, but then my friend, and local naturalist, Sean Foote came over to Lorton to see the reserve. I pointed out where one of the Skippers was fluttering about and he was like “oh yeh, an Essex” prompting a “Whaaaaat?!” from me! True enough, it was an Essex Skipper!

On Sunday, I was helping out on a stall at the Weymouth Sports and Wellbeing Festival, promoting Natural Choices – for which Dorset Wildlife Trust are running some activities. We had our seaside model out and making plasticine figurines to go onto it.

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dorset Wildlife Trust’s positions, strategies or opinions (or any other organisation or individuals for that matter).

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I’ve still got sand in my shoes

It wasn’t quite two weeks away from Dorset, but at one and a half weeks, it’s not far off Dido’s song lyrics. What a wonderful holiday it was too, I still can’t believe how much wildlife we saw in Scotland! Pine martens! Otters! Eagles! Western Scotland is definitely going on the list of places to revisit that’s for sure! And I know that Matt feels the same – especially since this was a revisit for him anyway!

Now I’m back in Dorset again. It has taken me a couple of days to switch from holiday mode to work mode. Luckily, I love my work and it is wildlife-related, so the jump wasn’t too big! Friday definitely shook me into place – we had a large group from a local school coming to the Chesil Beach Centre for two sessions. We decided to split them into two groups, because (a) it is more manageable for us, and (b) the children get a better experience in smaller groups.

I took one group, the Year 1s, and we headed out on a seashore scavenge. This involves a scavenger hunt where they have to find things from the list – e.g. something purple, three pebbles of different sizes, something that smells of the sea. I love this session as it allows the children to wander around (within a certain area and within sight) Chesil Beach, exploring what’s been washed up and working together as a team to find everything on their list. During this time, I visit each group a couple of times to see how they’re getting on and whilst doing so, do a little bit of a beach clean. Even in the limited area that we were in and being busy making sure the group were ok, I managed to collect a whole bag of rubbish! Rather depressing, but I use it as an educational tool to introduce them to marine litter and even talk a bit about currents.

In the afternoon, we became detectives and discovered seashore creatures along the edge of the Fleet Lagoon. Unsurprisingly we found plenty of crabs, mainly Common Shore Crabs (Carcinus maenas), which the children loved finding. I even persuaded a few of the reluctant children to hold a crab. Other finds included fish (though we couldn’t catch those), periwinkles, marine springtails (Anurida maritima), the cast off shells of crabs, limpets, topshells, anemones and sea slugs.

I was working up at Lorton Meadows Conservation Centre this weekend, and managed a couple of wanders to look for wildlife – during my late lunch break and then again after work. I finally saw my first Marbled White (Melanargia galathea) butterflies of the year, as well my first Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus), Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) and Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris) butterflies for the year. Other wildlife of note – 50+ Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) butterflies, hovering/hunting Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), a family of Long-tailed Tits (Aegithalos caudatus) and Red-tailed Bumblebees (Bombus lapidarius). As my camera is at the repair shop, I have some blurry phone photos for you.

Additionally, the Six-spot Burnet (Zygaena filipendulae) moth that I had collected as a caterpillar a couple of weeks ago and have pupated whilst I was in Scotland emerged as an adult moth this week. I released it back into the wild at Lorton, since I had found it there originally. A bit of an emotional moment. Not least because it is the first caterpillar I have managed to raise all the way through from caterpillar to adult!

In other news:

  • My guest post for the Wildlife Trusts blog was posted this week. I discuss an issue that I have been dwelling on for a while – the lack of engaging 16-30 year olds with nature.
  • I have been asking Findlay Wilde whether his guest post series, 13 Years Wilde, would (a) feature more female conservationists, (b) have a 50:50 ratio of female:male conservationists. Answers: (a) yes, (b) no.
    • Why am I asking? Well, to cut a long story short, there is an under-representation of women in STEM as a whole, but also in conservation. There are a number of factors involved, and a whole separate blog post (book?) would be required to discuss them in detail. However, for now, I’m saying that I would like to see this addressed where possible, and an equal (or at least nearly equal) representation of guest blog posts from conservationists is one way of doing so.
  • Following Scotland and this week, my butterfly life list is at 37 and my year list is at 30. Hopefully both will continue to increase this year!

The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dorset Wildlife Trust’s positions, strategies or opinions (or any other organisation or individuals for that matter).

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My guest blog post for 30 Days Wild

Having seen that the Wildlife Trusts were accepting guest posts in their 30 Days Wild blog series, I decided to enquire if I could submit one. Receiving an affirmative answer, I then pondered on what to write. How I connect with nature? The Megan & Matt Go Wild! joint-blogging? How fantastic it is to work in environmental education and show the wonders of nature to children? All good possibilities. However, an issue had been meandering around in the back of my mind for a while. I decided that now was a good time to bring it to the front and work through my thoughts on it, culminating in the blog post you see below. Originally posted here. 

Megan Shersby is an aspiring naturalist and science (particularly nature) communicator. She is currently based in Dorset, working as a Seasonal Assistant for Dorset Wildlife Trust. She is passionate about inspiring others to explore the natural world, and can usually be found in a nature reserve examining the local wildlife. In this blog, the last in our 30 Days Wild series for 2015, she discusses how we can inspire a generation to love wildlife.

Many groups in society are overlooked or marginalise. Among these are young people, particularly those between 16-30. Politics takes us for granted as we vote less than others, and the impacts on us of spending cuts and the housing shortage are disproportionate.. Of course, it’s true, and important to recognise, that this intersects with a range of other inequalities based on gender, race and sexual orientation. But I want to focus on the age dimension here.

The conservation sector, too, sometimes lets this age group fall through the gaps of its excellent work.

There is much focus on connecting children with nature, and rightly so. According to the RSPB’s survey only 21 % of 8-12year olds feeling connected with nature. Environmental education makes up part of what I’m employed to do – we have a variety of school groups attending the centres. One day I will be talking about seashore wildlife to Year 2 primary school children, the next I will be taking Year 5s pond dipping and studying tree identification, and then the next, a Year 9 group discussing longshore drift.

The conservation sector targets most of its efforts and messages at a few groups – school groups, families with young children, and those who make up charities’ core membership. But those between 16-30, who are often at unique stages in their lives, are often overlooked, or treated exactly the same as people of 40, 50 or 60 years old. They are not the same – these young people are these charities future members and the conservationists of the future too.. Only a few projects are in place to engage those 16-30 year olds who aren’t in young families and/or not engaging with wildlife.

Lucy McRobert (amongst other conservationists) recently wrote a fantastic guest post for Findlay Wilde’s blog series called 13 Years Wilde. It is a very honest account of not connecting with nature as a teenager: “wildlife meant very little to me as a teenager”. It is quite an eye-opener, considering that Lucy is one of the leading young conservationists in the United Kingdom and works as the Nature Matters Campaigns Manager for the Wildlife Trusts. It makes me feel a little better, as my teenage years weren’t so different from Lucy’s.

If even our leading conservationists and naturalists didn’t connect with nature during their teenage years, how can we hope to connect anyone else? There is no National Curriculum beyond Year 11 – and even in the previous years, there is very little room to squeeze in more nature. There are a lot of pressures on schools, teachers, their time and resources.

There are some excellent projects out there. Ideally these could be rolled out across our country (and the world?!), but funding is forever tight so for now, I won’t build my hopes too high. However, 30 Days Wild itself could take youth engagement a step further. Next year, maybe we should plan to particularly engage this age group with the campaign? Get the message into the magazines they read, get the celebrities they like to become involved, contact the community groups used by these ages – just a few ideas off the top of my head.

The lack of engagement by these youths and adults is one of the many reasons why groups such as A Focus On Nature, a network of young conservationists, are so vitally important and wonderful. As well as connecting young naturalists with each other, they allow us to become self-assured in ourselves, our abilities and our knowledge –and that actually, nature is cool. As a result, I feel more confident to talk about how amazing nature is to my peers who aren’t into wildlife as I am. I know that others members of A Focus On Nature have felt the same too. Thus even though there is no solution to magically connecting everyone with nature, we are creating ripples in the pond, and I live in hope that soon this issue will no longer exist. So if you know a young person, or actually someone of any age, who isn’t connecting to nature, why not create ripples of your own?

You can follow Megan on Twitter and read her blog here.

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The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent Dorset Wildlife Trust’s positions, strategies or opinions (or any other organisation or individuals for that matter).

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Day Thirty of Megan & Matt Go Wild!

Welcome to our joint-blogging series for the Wildlife Trusts’ 30 Days Wild Challenge – you can read more about the campaign and ourselves in our introduction page.

Matt (in Cambridge)

So, I’ve spent the last 30 days going wild. What has this felt like and have I changed in myself or made change in the world?

I like to think that posting about this on many days has drawn some people’s own attention to nature. But my blog and social media have pretty small readerships in the grand scheme of things.

Some of the activities I’ve taken part in have been large – the UN climate talks, the large climate event in London and Rainforest: Live.

But mostly, spending this month going wild has made a change in me.

Today I went wild like I would on most days. I had the day off and went for a walk around the fields behind the cottage, where I saw ringlet, comma, small tortoiseshell, skipper and other butterflies. There were woodpeckers, swifts and a sparrowhawk.

This morning I spent over an hour emptying the moth trap and identifying some of the species within it.

But spending this month trying to go wild has made me realise that even as someone who works in the conservation sector it can be pretty hard to fit in some wild time on a normal working day.

I have certainly tried hard to document and write more about the wildlife I encounter. I will continue to do that beyond the end of this month.

More profoundly, thanks to this month, I’ve thought deeper and harder than I ever thought I would. My first love was wildlife, and I’ve spent much of my life since then working to protect it and help others enjoy it. But for someone whose life is centred so much on wildlife, I spend a huge proportion of my time at a desk, in meetings, on trains and asleep.

This leaves very little time for wildlife itself, far less than I feel comfortable with. I don’t know what this means yet, but I do miss the days when I was a nature reserve warden.

#30DaysWild has forced me to begin seriously reassessing my job, the location where I live and the way I spend my time. As some other big things feel like they’re shifting in my life, and I turn 30 (years old) myself next year, this month couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment. It truly has begun a process of evaluating how my life to date has looked over the past 30 years, and what I want the next 30 to look like.

Here’s to 30!

Megan (in Dorset)

Today was pretty good for connecting with nature as it was my first day back at work after my holiday and I was down at the Chesil Beach Centre. As well as the usual admiration of Chesil Beach and the Fleet Lagoon, and its associated wildlife, I also gave a short talk to a group about Chesil Beach and did a beach clean (that had originally begun as a nature walk).

 

After closing up the centre, I headed over to Lorton Meadows Conservation Centre as I was welcoming a local Brownie group and a local Guides group to the reserve for pond dipping and a reserve walk respectively. They were wonderful groups who really enjoyed discovering the creatures of Lorton – particularly the dragonfly nymphs in the pond!

And with that, the 30 Days Wild campaign, and thus Megan & Matt Go Wild!, draws to a close. What a fantastic month it has been. Blogging every day has made me realise just how much I do connect with nature. Sometimes it is just in a small way (admiring landscapes for example), sometimes there are days when it’s all I do (the Scotland trip as a whole!).

It is hard to choose my highlights for the 30 Days Wild, but I’ll give it a go

As well as connecting with nature, the 30 Days Wild campaign and this blogging project has helped me connect with Matt more. We’ve learnt more about what the other does in their job, what wildlife they’ve seen that day and worked together as a team to joint-blog. Although it sounds cheesy, 30 Days Wild has brought us closer, despite the distance between us. Thankfully, we have also managed to meet up a number of times in June and connect with nature together in some wonderful locations – Llanbwchllyn Lake (Wales) for my bioblitz, Brownsea Island (Dorset) and Ardnamurchan (Scotland).

I know that we will both continue to engage with nature and share our love of wildlife with each other, our friends and family, and the internet in general.

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