Letter to Red Magazine Cont’d

My original e-mail to them can be found in this blog post. In short, I was writing about the lack of wildlife / conservation mentioned in their magazine plus the minimal amount of politics covered in the magazine (not online) around the time of the election.

Kudos to them, they actually responded to me:

Dear Megan, thank you for your email and for your considered thoughts on our editorial content.

You raise a couple of concerns. Firstly, the content of our Anti-Apathy portfolio. In championing a selection of spirited women, we were aiming to highlight the power of activism, whilst being aware that there were many other causes we could have covered. Nature being one of them. No doubt there are countless others. We are confident that our women presented a balanced and varied cross section of the inspiring causes out there. You also raise our political coverage. We have to take issue with you on this one!

Over the past 12 months we have interviewed MPs David Cameron, Ed Milliband, Nick Clegg, Yvette Cooper, Esther McVey, Sarah Champion, Chuka Umunna, Jo Swinson and many more. We have also launched the Red 1000 panel (in print and online), a brilliant group of 1000 Red readers, recruited to voice their opinions on the daily political issues facing women in Britain today.

If you’d come along to the Red 1000 hustings, you’d have seen Yvette Cooper, Nicky Morgan and Jo Swinson up on stage, discussing issues like the NHS, education and the economy. The event was livestreamed and reported on Redonline.
Incidentally, we live Tweeted throughout all the TV debates and during last night’s election results.Politically inactive? Absolutely not.

I hope this answers your comments – and thank you again for taking the time to get in touch with your feedback.

Best wishes,

Naturally I did the polite thing and replied:

Good morning,

Thank you ever so much for responding to my e-mail, I really do appreciate you taking the time to do so.

I completely agree, the women (and man) represented do cover a wide range of causes and as I said previously, it was so inspiring to hear their stories and their work.

I strongly believe that along with climate change, the decline of wildlife and nature is the biggest crisis people face over the coming decades. This means it will affect not only us but also our children and future generations. As with many crises, globally, women are more vulnerable than men to the effects.

However, in the UK and across the world there are powerful and inspiring stories of women working and coming together to challenge these problems and solve them.

I was wondering if you think a way to improve your coverage on this particular issue would be an article or feature on one or more topics related to nature and wildlife. If you agree, I’ve had some ideas and would be happy to send you through a more detailed pitch. (Because why not? And I do actually have some ideas that I think would make some brilliant articles)

Regarding political coverage, I have loved your interviews in the magazine, they were wonderful and I enjoyed reading them. I don’t at all believe that you are politically inactive – but I do believe more could have been done in print around the time of the elections. Perhaps your next issue will discuss the manifesto of the Conservatives or women in politics? I know I’ve seen these online, but that’s only because I went searching specifically. I am one of your readers that currently only engages with you through the print media and I know for certain that I’m not the only one.

Best wishes,

Ms Megan Shersby

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Nature is full of drama

What a week of drama! So much wildlife has been seen and there have been stories worthy of a TV soap opera! And oh yes, there was that general election thing as well. I’ve written about that too.

In terms of the caterpillars, they are all still alive and munching their way through large quantities of leaves. I did get quite worried about the Garden Tiger Moth caterpillars at one point as they were not moving much, or eating much. And then I found what looked like half a caterpillar! But I still had three … turns out it was the skin of one! Evidently they outgrow them and shed them. It wasn’t long before the other two went through this as well. Just after they shed it, their hairdos look particularly fresh! They are called Fluffy 1, 2 and 3, whilst the green caterpillar has been nicknamed Jade (as suggested by Jennifer Hunt).

At Lorton, we have had a couple of school groups in looking for minibeasts – pond dipping, using sweep nets in the meadow and searching under logs in the wood. An interesting beetle, caught by a little girl, caught my eye and I took it back to the centre. My line manager identified it as one of the soldier beetles, and with a bit of further investigation I do believe it is Cantharis fusca which is Nationally Scarce species. [ID was confirmed by NHM Coleoptera, I said previously that it was a Red Data Book species, but it was downgraded in 2013]. In the woods, one group found a caterpillar, so I promptly potted it up (with some leaves of course). This one is called Fusspot as he/she seems quite fussy about food.

We had a bit of a work jolly on Thursday. As part of being a volunteer at the Chesil / Lorton centres, training is provided. In this case, training took the form of a trip over to Durlston Country Park and National Nature Reserve where we had a lovely wander in the sunshine (surprisingly pleasant weather considering the wind we’d had the rest of the week!). We found yet another caterpillar – now potted up and named (Arnold – suggested by Chris Calow), as well as plenty of flowers and even my first Wall butterfly of the year!

After our wander, we were given a guided walk by one of the rangers, during which we saw some more fantastic wildlife!

Back at Lorton for the weekend, and I was anxious during Sunday morning – the eggs had been unattended all morning, with just the quickest visit from the male Kestrel. Later on, he sat on them for a good long time, though as I type at 8pm, he is absent again from the webcam. My fears were confirmed when someone found some wings and feathers in the meadow near where their box is … Kestrel wings, and according to Sean Foote, they look to belong to a female!

To cheer myself up after this tragedy, I spent an hour or so sitting by the pond after work (busman’s holiday!) looking at the insects and listening to the birds. As you can see, it is a lovely spot to relax at. I watched a damselfly nymph crawl across a lilypad, attempt to climb a vertical leaf a couple of times, before it fell into the water. I saw a bright red beetle lurking in the shade of a post, and a spider waiting for its next prey item to appear. A fellow naturalist appeared and we discussed wildlife, before he spotted a damselfly on a nearby bush – my first of the year! Just after, I spotted a dragonfly exhuvia attached to a plant near the pond – a different shape to the one I found last week, thus a different species presumably!

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Challenge Accepted – my Vision for Nature blog

This post originally appeared on A Focus On Nature‘s blog as part of their #VisionforNature series in the run-up (and just after) the general election 2015. Amongst the questions asked to prompt thoughts were: What do you want the natural world to look like 2050, and how do we get there? What is special about the relationship between young people and nature? 

I was incredibly honoured to be asked to co-ordinate this series of blog posts, and associated social media promotion, and it was greatly inspiring to receive so many fantastic pieces of writing from a variety of AFON members. I had originally thought I would write about engaging people with wildlife for my topic – after all, that’s what I do with my blog and my paid work. However with the Tory win for the election, I took inspiration from others (such as Georgia Locock and Matt Shardlaw) to look at their manifesto and what their win would be for wildlife and their environment. 

                                                                                                                   

So the votes are in, and the Tories are here to stay for another round. Whatever your views on this, at least we can all take a moment to breathe a sigh of relief that all that election bumph is over … until next time.

Right then, back to business. I will start with laying something out clearly – I am not going to analyse these political results too deeply. After all, they say to write about what you know, and I am very much a beginner when it comes to understanding politics. However, I will try to get my head around what this means for wildlife and our environment. I do hope it won’t be too depressing to read.

To begin, I shall refer to Georgia Locock’s excellent post on her own blog where she analyses the different manifestos offered up by each main political party – and let us look specifically at what she found for the Conservatives. Here’s a link to their full manifesto.

From Georgia Locock's blog

There are some positive actions in that list, I’ll give them that. I am thrilled that they are supportingcharging 5p for plastic bags. In Wales, this has been in place for a number of years already and is proving to be very effective (note: that link doesn’t provide very recent data). Of course, I would like to see further actions taken – ultimately a ban on plastic bags, but that is a long-term goal and the 5p charge is a realistic and feasible step in reducing plastic usage / waste.

I am encouraged by their aim to tackle international wildlife trade. I’ve been to South Africa and watched in awe as elephants and rhinos have wandered past on their daily business, these animals are magnificent and wondrous – but they are dying in their thousands. I hope that the Tories also plan to focus on the less well-known animals being trafficked – lorises, pangolins, birds and more. These species also need our help.

I’m intrigued by their Blue Belt plan. However, considering that the last government failed to fully implement the Marine Conservation Zones, designating only 27 when many more were actually recommended – I don’t hold out high hopes for our marine areas and associated wildlife to receive the true protection that they need.

Ok, I’ve had enough of being positive … time to look at those actions which make me wince. Although wince is a mild word – more like they make me want to shout at people and hit cushions in anger!

Opportunity to repel the Hunting Act?! What on earth are they thinking? Do they have no compassion for our wild animals? Don’t get me wrong, I do support some hunting – i.e. when it is (a) needed in order to feed people and (b) done sensibly with minimal distress to the animal. However, I don’t believe it is that hunting foxes, chasing hares, or using dogs is acceptable.  To me, it is just cruel and morally wrong.

Then there is going ahead with HS2. There are a variety of reasons why I don’t agree with HS2 – the demolishing of listed buildings, damage to the chalk aquifier system (and thus affecting water supplies in North London, which is where I’m from!) and so on. The main reason I don’t agree is that the HS2 proposal threatens 83 ancient woods (according to the Woodland Trust) – cutting straight through the heart of some woodlands. I am a big fan of ancient woodland, these habitats are rare and wonderful, full of spectacular species. There is no point in discussing biodiversity offsetting here, one’t can replace ancient woodland by planting new trees – the clue is in the name! Ancient woodland is ancient! Also, by supporting the HS2, they are surely contradicting their pledge to keep forests in the trust of the nation?

Now onto that topic which is well and truly controversial – culling badgers to control bTb. As Georgia Locock has pointed out:

In the UK badgers are one of the most protected species under The Protection of Badgers Act 1992 however they are the most persecuted.

I’m sure that we are all in agreement that something does need to be done to tackle the issue that is bovine Tb and it’s terrible effects on both the cattle and farmers. The scientific evidence suggests that culling badgers is not the best way – in fact, it could lead to worsening the problem. Why do the Tories support this action which will actually result in a worse outcome? It just isn’t logical, and whilst we waste time and money on it, numerous badgers are suffering as a result, often inhumanely. We need to use common sense and our morals here, listen to the evidence and act accordingly. In my own opinion, formed from what I have read, I believe that increase biosecurity measures and vaccination programs are the way forward.

I would quite like to write a bit about the Conservatives views on hen harriers here … but aside fromprotecting shooting, hunting and fishing as previously mentioned, I am not sure what they are.

I know I haven’t covered everything – unfortunately there is just so much to worry about! Declining pollinators, climate change (and all that relates to it), nature deficit disorder, pollution of water sources and more. To write about all of them would take an awful long time, more than the hours I have available today.

Let us be honest. Overall, it is all rather depressing. As an eternal optimist, that is quite a hard thing for me to say. There are hints of good things occurring, but it’s just not enough. We need to mobilise ourselves and make sure that our wildlife, our environment and our natural world as a whole are protected. And by “we”, I don’t mean just the A Focus On Nature network. I don’t even mean just conservationists and naturalists. By “we”, I mean everyone. We all need to get involved. It’s a big ask I know, and likely not realistic, but I like to dream big and optimistically.

How do we go about doing this though? How do we go about getting our voices heard? I am afraid I don’t have the answers – I’m still learning about politics and campaigning, it is going to be something I discover in the next couple of years, you can be guaranteed that I will try my best to get my voice heard (if you’ve met me in person, you know that I am not exactly quiet/unopinionated!).

We need to let the politicians know that they, and society as a whole, will suffer if they make bad decisions. Our Vision for Nature blog series is just the beginning. The Vision for Nature report is coming together, the material from the focus groups, surveys and more is being collated and analysed as I type! Of course, we will be sending it the government and making sure that they know we are determined to protect what belongs to us all.

It is going to be a challenge and a half, but I accept that challenge, do you?

Some posts concerning the election that are worth a read:

Some tweets from fellow young conservationists that have been inspiring me today:

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 at two of their centres. She is passionate about inspiring others to explore the natural world, and can usually be found in nature reserve examining the local wildlife. If that fails, look for the nearest moth trap, as she’ll probably be peering into its depths for the latest catch. You can follow her on Twitter at: @MeganShersby, or via her blog at: mshersby.wordpress.com

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I just did a cool thing

Hm, it seems that the general election has inspired me to write! As well as writing my Vision for Nature blog post, I’ve finally got round to writing an e-mail to Red Magazine concerning some thoughts of mine on their recent issues. I know that there are more articles on the website (I particularly like this one about Political Women To Watch in 2015), but in the e-mail, I am just writing about their magazine.

It’s not a perfect e-mail and, having sent it, I can see where I could’ve expanded my views or written more clearly. But the point is, I’ve done it.

I always say I’m going to write a letter/e-mail about my thoughts (be it customer service, pot holes, etc), but aside from TripAdvisor reviews, this is the first time I’ve actually done it! Concerning one of my favourite topics – conservation! And what with the election just now, the minimal mention of politics in their magazines!

I wonder if they will respond? I’ll keep you updated of course!

Good afternoon,
First and foremost, I would like to congratulate you on your Anti-Apathy feature in May’s Issue. As a young woman in my mid-twenties who is keen to help make the world a better place, it was inspiring to read about such fantastic role models.

However, I felt a bit let down – where was nature? You may argue that Thomasina Miers “The Pig Idea” represented this aspect of activism, but I would have preferred an additional piece on conservationists, there are plenty of female role models out there who are all making a difference:

  • Lucy McRobert – Co-Founder and Creative Director of A Focus On Nature
  • Miranda Krestovnikoff – President of RSPB
  • Stephanie Hilborne – Chief Exec of the Wildlife Trusts
  • Brigit Strawbridge
  • Kate Humble
  • Michaela Strachan
  • Rosie Woodroffe
  • and many more!

Nature and environment are intricately linked to humans – mental wellbeing, economic growth, and so on. I feel that conservation should feature more in Red overall if I’m honest. For one thing, many readers will have children, and our most recent generations have been suffering from nature deficit disorder.

Onto a separate issue, I was very disappointed by the minimal amount of politics in your recent issues. We’ve just had a general election! Whilst I’m not saying your whole magazine should have been devoted to politics – there should’ve been more discussions on each parties views on the matters close to your readers hearts – housing, maternity leave/rights, etc etc. I look to Red as a magazine with interesting articles, but recently I feel it has been lacking and I hope that you up your game.

I could write more about the lack of technology featured, the language used to describe women (the descriptions about Christina Hendricks’ body when it wasn’t being discussed by her!), my personal view on the excessive amount of advertising (mostly on brands and objects – when you’ve recently featured an article on not spending money on objects!), but I feel that they are for another time.

Yours sincerely,
Ms Megan Shersby

Note – Red Magazine do have an online article on the Conservatives Manifesto (though no mention in the article about the environment, hmph!). I hope that something similar (with nature/environment included) appears in their next issue!!

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Here Be Tigers And Dragons

A blustery Monday at Chesil (which is pretty much always windy by the way), and we were heading out onto the beaches to recce a butterfly survey walk. Minimal Lepidoptera seen this time, just one Small White in fact, but plenty of other wildlife about including bumblebees and Wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe). Other notable birds seen at Chesil earlier this week have been Curlew Sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea) and Little Terns (Sternula albifrons).

My favourite part of the aforementioned walk was when we came across a mass of fluffy caterpillars, initially thought to be around 50 or so. I started counting … and kept counting … and still counting … there were 157 of them in a small patch of land (a couple of square metres roughly)!!! 157!!!!! Crazy numbers! And then I found a further 11 not too far away – I wonder how many are actually on Hamm / Chesil Beach? Anyway down to identification – not too difficult with this species, it is very distinctive: Garden Tiger Moth Caterpillar (Arctia caja, I found two a couple of weeks ago as well). Since I found a total of 168, and they are a relatively common species – though declining like many – I decided that it would be safe to take 3 of them to raise up. They are now living in a (large) pot with plenty of food. Naturally, I shall be keeping track of their progress and will update you as well.

A second type of caterpillar was later found at Lorton … but no clue as to what it is! Green caterpillars are rather difficult to identify, so I am also going to raise that one into an adult and shall let you know what it turns into!

I had cracking views of the local kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) one morning, it was hovering near the centre then dropped down on its prey and stood on the path for a while munching away / ripping it apart. A little grim, and unfortunate for the small mammal being eaten, by fascinating nonetheless.

I am very lucky to be paid to do what I love, which to put it shortly is talking to people about wildlife. This week had a special highlight as we had a class from local school come to Lorton to do pond dipping, which is absolutely one of my favourite activities! The underwater world is just fascinating! This session was no exception; with water boatmen, damselfly nymphs and snails galore! The highlights for me were finding the exhuvia (skin) of a dragonfly nymph (left behind when the adult dragonfly takes to the air), and two different types of water snail eggs – you can tell the difference between the species by how the eggs are laid onto the surface.

A typical conservationist, I went for a walk on the reserve after work as I had been informed that the Early Purple Orchids (Orchis mascula) had started to bloom. So I duely headed off to find them, and of course, saw plenty of wildlife along the way. The dandelions (Taraxacum) are going over now, which is great fun for blowing the seeds. I even saw a couple of Long-tailed Tits (Aegithalos caudatus), and finally managed to take some decent photos, after mixed attempts previously!

The weekend saw me adventuring to somewhere new – the lovely Worcestershire county, particularly the Malvern area. Matt was leading a dawn birdsong walk with the local WI and I tagged along, the highlights for me were: Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), Garden Warbler (Sylvia borin) and Goldcrest (Regulus regulus). Moving from birds to botanical, a visit to a nearby nature reserve meant that I could practice my wildflower ID.

Matt has spent quite a lot of time here photographing the wildlife. Below is one of a Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea), a pair of which breed under the bridge.

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We Knew We Had Been There Before

Part of me feels I should start splitting my blog posts into four sections – Chesil Beach, Lorton Meadows, the garden and adventures out and about. Thoughts on that idea welcome, but for now, let’s get on with looking at wildlife!

Wait hang on, wildlife is suffering for oh so many reasons, and I want to highlight one of them briefly – litter. Isn’t it just awful?! Cans with the last remnants of fizzy drinks, dirty plastic bottles, torn and mangled plastic bags hanging from trees or caught up in grass. You’re probably nodding as you read this, we all see litter all the time. But how often do you actually do something about it? If you’re my dad (unlikely as I don’t think he reads this blog often), that’s quite often. Rarely a dog walk goes by when he doesn’t pick up some litter and put it in the bin. The rest of you though? Have an honest think for a moment … how often do you walk past litter? Or watch someone drop litter and say nothing? Or (hopefully not!) drop litter yourself because (a) it’s just a little bit, so it doesn’t matter, (b) there are no bins around and no way are you putting it in your pocket / bag, or (b) you’re in car so it’s fine to chuck it out the window? And that’s just litter … don’t get me started about dog mess!

Why am I going on about litter? Well, first it is one of my 2015 Wildlife Resolutions to pick up more litter which I have been trying to do, and second I took a photo of one of my quick litter picks on Monday to put onto Twitter under the hashtag of #2minutebeachclean. It’s a wonderful idea, literally just spend two minutes picking up litter whilst you’re at the beach (obviously don’t add any litter to the beach during your visit!). Imagine if all the visitors did that … *dreams happily of litter-free beaches*.

Why bother though? Well! As previously mentioned, litter is awful for wildlife. It gets eaten and kills a variety of animals – including beautiful albatrosses and turtles. Even degraded plastic is not safe – it turns into microplastics and ends up in the food chain (and likely in your seafood)! Plus, litter is an eyesore, and by picking it up, perhaps you’ll inspire others to pick up litter too and soon your local area will be litter-free! Hooray!

So next time you’re out and about, do pick up some litter!

Ok, now back to wildlife. Whilst litter picking, I could see some Terns about on the Fleet. I’m still not 100% sure I have seen a Little Tern (Sternula albifrons), so won’t tick that species off for 2015 just yet. However, there were plenty of Sandwich Terns (Sterna sandvicensis) diving for food. I also managed to take a rather blurry photo of Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator). Another aim for my time here – get some better photos of that species?

I also spent time over at Lorton Meadows as expected, trying to learn a bit more about the reserve – both its history and wildlife. There’s a wonderful variety of wildflowers and insects (as well as birds of course – oh, if you don’t know of the Kestrel Webcam, go watch! I warn you though, it’s quite addictive!), and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all changes across the seasons. Fingers crossed, I’ll be allowed to do some moth trapping there as well!

I won’t keep you much longer, I just want to show off a couple of the moths that I caught in the garden this week – before it started raining at the end of the week. My catches included a particular beauty called the Early Thorn (Selenia dentaria) whose wing patterning is beautiful I think. I tweeted about this species early in the week, and it seems that others agree with my thoughts, which is marvellous (though not unexpected).

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Now this looks like a job for me

As the title suggests, I am no longer unemployed! However, before I get onto that good news, I would like to take a detour over to Kent where my parents and I headed out onto the river on their boat. Mind you, before even got onto the boat, I was distracted by a daisy! The sunlight was shining on it in particularly lovely way and I just had to take a couple of photographs! It was a stunning day, warm and blessed with sunshine – I could hear Chiffchaffs (Phylloscopus collybita) and Greenfinches (Carduelis chloris) on the riverbanks, and we saw plenty of waterfowl including Mute Swans (Cygnus olor) and a rather handsome Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata). There were huge swathes of blossom ladening the air with their sweet smell.

Naturally, I got a little distracted by insects – I managed to get a decent photo of a bee-fly (Bombyliidae) before we took to the water, and once on the water it seemed like the insects wanted some attention! A number of beetles landed on the boat, as did a wasp and an (as yet) unidentified creature.

Onto the job. Do you remember that I spent six months with Dorset Wildlife Trust last year before I was snapped up for a job at Radnorshire Wildlife Trust? I was a trainee, funded by the Heritage Lottery, based at their Chesil Beach Centre. Well, now they’ve taken me back as an employee for 6 months, based jointly at Chesil and Lorton Meadows. And I get to do what I love, talking about wildlife to people (and seeing wildlife at the same time of course)! What a thrilling summer it is set to be!

My first day back immediately set a high standard. Vicky and I were asked to find the Barrel Jellyfish (Rhizostoma pulmo) that had been reported on Hamm Beach – which we did. But being naturalists, we also took note of the other wildlife about! I was trying to remind myself of the specialist coastal plants about, and getting distracted by bees and butterflies!

I even found my first moths for Dorset this year – three hairy caterpillars! The first was an unknown to me initially, but using an educated guess, I went for Ruby Tiger (Phragmatobia fuliginosa). The other two were both immediately recognisable – Garden Tiger (Arctia caja).

Now that I’m back in Dorset, I’m afraid you’re going to be seeing a lot of stunning landscape photos. I hope you can put up with that.

The evening of my first day back saw me heading up to the Isle of Portland on my first twitch of the year, a Hoopoe (Upupa epops) had been reported at one of the quarries. Meeting up with Sean, we made our way to the area in hope. Chatting away (quietly) as we approached where it was last seen, I suddenly said “Is that it there?” Just on the path in front, maybe 20m away, a Hoopoe! These birds fly up from Africa to southern Europe, and some always overshoot and end up in the UK, but I’d never seen one before. What a fantastic bird it is! Just look at that plumage!

And on a related note – I’ve completely now ticked off another of my 2015 Wildlife Resolutions: to go one at least one twitch!

I’m not always out and about looking for wildlife, sometimes I look for wildlife in the garden too. The species below were all seen in my landlady’s garden – the Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) and Orange-tip (Anthocharis cardamines) butterflies were my first for the year! As was the Ashy Mining Bee (Andrena cineraria), which was rather amusing as I was on the phone to Matt when I saw it, causing me to put him on hold. Fortunately he understood and was ok with that, phew!

At the weekend, I went on a busman’s holiday and visited Butterfly Conservation‘s Lankham Bottom reserve (I still can’t help giggling at that name). That was exciting too – as well as being a stunning reserve, I saw a Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) and a Red Kite (Milvus milvus)!

The highlight however came in the form of (very) small butterfly, darting about in a blur among the grass. My initial thought (whilst it was still a blur) was perhaps a day-flying moth. However, as soon as it landed, I knew what it was – a very distinctive butterfly species, the Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvae). My breath caught in my mouth, I almost froze in astonishment / excitement. My first new butterfly species of the year! And what a beauty it was! Much smaller than I thought it would be (it really is tiny!), and unfortunately a species whose distribution is declining. Such as treat to see it. Could I manage to get a photo? It was rather restless, but it did land every now and then. Luck (and perhaps a little bit of photography skill on my part?) was on my side and I got a few satisfactory shots. Crikey!

Wait a moment, that means that I’ve half-completed another wildlife resolution of 2015 – to see 2 new species of butterfly! And what with offers to help me see at least three more, it looks like I’ll be ticking off that resolution as completed soon!

Just before I sign off, I would like to direct you to over to the A Focus On Nature blog, where there are a series of posts being published in the run-up to the general election as members of the network discuss their Vision for Nature (also on Twitter using the hashtag: #VisionforNature). As well as pointing you in that direction because the posts make for very interesting reads, it’s also because I’m co-ordinating the publishing of these blogs (so a little bit of self-interest I won’t lie). I am partway through drafting my post, which shall be published in due course and will appear on my own blog of course.

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Moths Rule

It was my last weekend before my contract at Radnorshire Wildlife Trust finished, you would think I would be taking a break perhaps, having a lie-in and a cuppa maybe. But this is me that we’re talking about, so instead I was up and out at an unearthly hour – out the door by 6.45am! (NB – if you know me well, you’ll see that my recently started medication is evidently working!!) It was snowy and icy out, still incredibly dark and blooming cold! What on earth was I thinking?! But there was a plan in action you see, I was off on an adventure to Birmingham. I was attending an event – the National Moth Recorders’ Meeting (organised by the Moths Count project, of Butterfly Conservation), and I was very excited. A whole day conference on one of my favourite subjects, with lots of other people who are also really keen, what wasn’t to love about it? Except perhaps the early start.

To see the conference tweeting from the day, just look at the hashtag: #NMRM.

As expected, it was a brilliant day. With a range of fascinating talks, trade stalls and plenty of fellow enthusiasts to talk to, I was buzzing. Apparently it was the highest number of attendees, I think it was around 200 or so? Some I knew already – I’d met a number of the Butterfly Conservation staff before, and there some other Twitter users attending that I follow (it was lovely to put a face to the Twitter handle!).

The talks were fascinating, as previously mentioned, and on a range of topics including:

  • The work of the world’s first ever local biological records centre (I think I’ve remembered that right), Cumbria Biodiversity Data Centre
  • Using pheromones to lure in rare species
  • The distribution of the Cinnabar Moth in Scotland
  • A discussion on whether a national micro-moths recording scheme was possible
  • Looking for moths in Wales
  • A round-up of the Garden Moth Scheme
  • Moth trapping in Sweden – light trapping during summer doesn’t work!

 

The trade stalls were fantastic: books (including some of the new ones!), equipment (which I stared at longingly) and some gorgeous craft products – tea towels, postcards and notebooks from Creature Candy, and the absolutely stunning creations from Hachiware. My bank account is not happy with me, but I have no regrets!

All in all, it’s already in my diary for 2016! Congratulations and many thanks to Butterfly Conservation / Moths Count for such a superb, especially to Zoe Randle who I believe is the main organiser for the day.

 

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Wild Winter Days

Brr, what a cold couple of weeks it has been! Not all that surprising mind, since it is mid-winter in central Wales! We’ve even had snow, which was very exciting indeed! Just below are my photos from the offices in Llandrindod Wells when the snowfall began. The last one looks a bit Narnia-esque with the falling snow and that lantern! If there was more grass / trees, it could almost be Lantern Waste (not far from the Land of Spare ‘Oom!).

The snow started falling a bit heavier, so I decided to make a dash for it. Where I’m living currently is very definitely in the middle of nowhere and any sort of snow / ice makes travel a little difficult! Actually scrap that, living in the middle of the Welsh hills means driving through the little Welsh country lanes, which is always difficult – whether you’re turning a corner to suddenly being faced with a large lorry taking up the whole road, or a Tak-tak (how I pronounced tractor as a child) rumbling towards you, or a confused block of sheep bleating everywhere. That’s not taking into account the potholes / puddles that are dotting the road, or the occasional open field gate, or ALL the mud and / or hay strewn across the road.

Nonetheless, I enjoy the commute – it takes me up over one of the big local hills and shows off some fantastic views, which are even more spectacular when in the snow! I did love this drive, as the altitude increased, I could see the snow level also increasing. I absolutely had to stop and take some photographs, but I couldn’t stop for long. With the darkness rolling in and some heavy snow clouds rumbling up and over the hills behind me, I had to get myself back to the house before it got dangerous.

I went to sleep quite excited, I knew that heavy snowfall was due overnight. And what a vista I woke up to – a thick blanket of snow sparkling in the mid-winter sun. I chucked on the wellies and waterproofs and got out there, chasing the dogs through the snow, hurtling down the slopes on a sledge (slightly worrying since there is a stream and trees at the bottom of the slope) and generally having a wonderful time! I did get round to doing some work in the end of course.

A couple of days I was back at certain reserve, can you guess which one? Gilfach of course! As usual, it was absolutely stunning!

I also had a look at some lichens down by the river. Whilst I have no idea what they are, some helpful people on Twitter gave me some insights to the world of lichens – C.coniocraea, C.chlorophaea, U.florida, and P.membranacea/hymenina.

A last couple of photos from the day. My line manager’s awesome wizard-like stick, where the swirls were caused by honeysuckle. A hailstone caught in some moss. And being in the back of a little truck briefly when we were on a farm – it’s was like being back in South Africa and going round in the back of the bakkie (truck!), except for the temperature!

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People and Places of 2014

I know, I know, I’ve already written a blog post about the wonderful wildlife that I’ve seen in 2014. But none of it would’ve been possible if not for fantastic people and amazing places.

Location, Location, Location

I’ve actually already blogged about two amazing places earlier this month as part of AFON’s Advent Blog Posts. I couldn’t pick between them, so I wrote about both Chesil Beach and Gilfach Reserve because they are both just absolutely stunning and have played a really big part in me seeing so much wildlife.

Naturally, I have also visited a variety of other natural areas across the country – from Yorkshire over to a number of spots in Wales, across to London, down south in Dorset, and back east to Sussex. It’s hard to pick highlights, they were all great in their different ways, but I guess the following are probably the ones below:

  • Brownsea Island (Dorset) – persuading the warden to put out the moth trap early, seeing a ridiculous number of new species across a variety of taxa!
  • Anglesey (North Wales) – incredibly blustery, with family, saw butterflies, bumblebees and a red squirrel!
  • Portland (Dorset) in general – rare and/or migratory moths, looking for Lulworth Skipper butterfly, seeing my first wild Barn Owls, I have a lot of love for the Isle of Portland!
  • Slimbridge (Glos) – AFON Christmas Catch-up which was just amazing!!!!

People

Where to start? I have met so many brilliant / fantastic / inspiring naturalists this year. Every single person deserves a big thank you and a hug for being amazing. I’ll try to list them … but I may miss someone out, in which case I’m really sorry, but you’re still awesome!

  • Dorset:
    • Fellow trainees who have been such fantastic friends and fellow conservationists. I may not have seen you in months, but you still continue to inspire me!
    • Staff and volunteers at Dorset Wildlife Trust, but a few in particular: my traineeship mentor Emily, the traineeship manager Steve, Marc at Chesil, everyone who helped at my Big Wild Chesil Event (ah the stress!)
    • Angela and Rowan for being amazing
    • All the Portland naturalists, but especially Sean and Debbie who were patient with my slow progress in learning bird and moth identification!
    • Particular thanks to other Dorset naturalists, Phil and Steve who taught me so much about moths and birds respectively.
  • Wales:
    • Staff at Radnorshire Wildlife Trust for taking me on, and for putting up with my obsession with moths.
    • Rupert at Aber Uni for hearing out my ideas for a new project (soon to be launched!)
  • Groups – this year wouldn’t be anywhere near as awesome if it weren’t for the young conservationists groups that I have joined, it’s been fantastic and I can’t wait to see what we get up to next year!
    • A Focus On Nature
    • Next Generation Birders
    • The Minors (whoo, moths!)
  • And of course, my family and friends who allow me to talk to them on how cool wildlife is

And so whilst finishing this post off, I feel slightly overwhelmed. 2014 has been such an epic year – beautiful places, lovely people, stunning wildlife. Can 2015 compete? Well, I shall shortly be setting myself some Wildlife Resolutions for the new year, and I’ve got an upcoming exciting project. I’m going to be giving it my best shot, that’s for sure!

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