TCV Blogs

I spent last week on the Marine Biological Sampling course at FSC Millport. One of my objectives this year is to develop a specialism in polychaete identification and this trip was a great opportunity to collect some worms from a number of different habitats and sampling methods. For example, we found a sea mouse (Aphrodita […]
Continue reading Marine Worms in Millport

This article was posted in the blog Natural Talent

Hello, Another month gone already. With time and patience I’m slowly gaining confidence in my identification skills, just in time for Phoebe to leave me to fend for myself. Though I will be sending her occasional pleas for help as I encounter wonderful and new species that I can’t key out. I’ve learnt a lot […]
Continue reading March

This article was posted in the blog Natural Talent

  Hello everyone! I thought I’d let you know what I was up to in March. It was a bit of an odd month, this winter seems to be never ending here and we had yet more snow on Easter weekend BUT it was actually sunny yesterday and I saw a chiffchaff the other day […]
Continue reading Underground, overground, wombling free...

This article was posted in the blog Natural Talent

Hello again! I can hardly believe we’ve reached the end of March already. Spring is slowly (very slowly) creeping up on us here in Scotland and we’ve had a rare few beautiful, sunny days in between the relentless snow and cold. I even managed to spot my first butterflies and bees of the year on […]
Continue reading A Buzz in the Air - March Blog

This article was posted in the blog Natural Talent

A belated introduction from me, I am one of this year’s Natural Talent trainees. As the title might suggest I have a focus on Lichens (the ecological equivalent of Benny from ABBA. Vitally important but best known for being the one in the background with a “Bushy” beard) with the addition of Seaweeds (keeping with […]
Continue reading Don’t Do Lichens Kids!

This article was posted in the blog Natural Talent

Well, here it is, the final month of this rollercoaster ride that has been my TCV Natural Talent traineeship! I will be ending the month with a heavy heart as this has been such a fantastic and eye-opening (hopefully door-opening) experience for me. I feel I’ve developed so much in just 12 short months, there […]
Continue reading The end of an era - One year at Buglife Scotland

This article was posted in the blog Natural Talent

Hello! I’m Kate and I’m the new Peatlands and Micro-moths trainee based at Butterfly Conservation in Stirling. I’m going to spending 12 months studying micro-moths found on peatland habitats. These are a particularly under recorded group of species, mostly because they are so small and can be tricky to ID in the field. I’m aiming […]
Continue reading Tiny moths and peat bogs.

This article was posted in the blog Natural Talent

Hello hello! I’m Jo – one of TCV’s Natural Talent recruits for 2018 and the newest member of #TeamSnail at Buglife Scotland. I am super excited to spend the next year working with the wonderful people at Buglife on their HLF-funded Marvellous Mud Snails project based in Stirling. If you’d like to find out more about […]
Continue reading A 'Marvellous' First Month (and a bit)!

This article was posted in the blog Natural Talent

Hello, I’m Nia, the new natural talent trainee based at the fantastic National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. I am studying leafhoppers and planthoppers, a wonderfully diverse and abundant group of insects in grassland. Very few people however choose to study them due to their small size and the need to dissect them to identify […]
Continue reading Hoppers and fun

This article was posted in the blog Natural Talent

The end is nigh! This is my second last month of the traineeship, or  ‘Full-on February’ as it should be called, but what an amazing month is has been. I really will be sad to see this adventure come to an end.  We’re back into breeding season for the Pond mud snails, they have moved […]
Continue reading Full-on February, one month to go at Buglife HQ

This article was posted in the blog Natural Talent