I can't really believe it's been over 3 months since I last updated my blog. This hasn't been through a lack of interesting things to post, but more through a lack of time to post about the interesting things I've been doing. I've only spent a handful of days at home since leaving Skomer.
There have been trips to Carmarthen, Llanidloes, Hereford, Cambridge, The Wash, Dumfries and Galloway, the Lake District, and multiple trips to North Wales. I've also joined a choir, taken up Welsh classes and set myself up for mist netting at home.
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| Swallow roost - juvenile |
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| Juvenile Female Wheatear at CES - the 85th species I've ringed. |
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| Parasol Mushrooms & my Mum's new terrier puppy |
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| Lake District - a fantastic, if wet, long weekend |
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| Cannon netting with SCAN, North Wales. I've also joined the Wash Wader Ringing Group for a week long trip. |
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| Chough colour ringing in North Wales |
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| Mist netting at home & showing my family what it's all about. Jen (my sister) & Freya (my niece) |
The last month (November) has been taken up working for BTO Cymru taking soil samples across Snowdonia in Ffridd habitats. This was hard fieldwork but took me to some wonderful places in Snowdonia that few people ever seem to see.
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| 1 of the sample sites with the corer & my equipment in the foreground |
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| An interesting bulk density sample |
I finished this fieldwork on Thursday and celebrated by attending the BTO Conference in Swanick. A fantastic weekend that I intend to give a blog post all of its own!
I have various things planned for December, but my next major step is 2 months travelling up the East coast of Australia (5th January - 28th February). This will then leave March free for necessary preparations before returning to Skomer in April, for a second season of seabird monitoring.
It feels very nice to have plans and things sorted until next September. My intention is then to go back to the southern hemisphere / tropics for our winter 2015, and obtain a breeding season research fieldworker post, or ringing station job before returning for the spring. These are only preliminary post- Skomer plans however, and I'm always on the look out for other opportunities!
