Welcome to another thrilling instalment of the BogBlog.
Either the season has started to slow down a bit, or I’m getting more efficient. One of the two. I seem to be taking things in my stride now, 8 months into my apprenticeship. “You want me to deliver a talk for you in a big hall with a microphone?… Well that’s no problem! And a guided walk on a bog, you say? Fine by me!” How about talking non-stop for 8 hours about pondlife to thousands of kids? Well, that was what we did last weekend! I imagine that by January I’ll be capable of world domination. I can’t imagine any better way to become super-dooper employable than through the Natural Talent scheme.
I’ve put together some stats for a talk I’m doing (another big hall + microphone) on Saturday for the Butterfly Conservation Scotland’s Member’s Day. I thought they might be worth sharing here, also.
I have carried out in the past 8 months:
26 days of training
22 days of public events
3 conferences
2 guided walks
35 days of surveying (not including ID work or data analysis)
6 nights of moth trapping
3 work parties
3 talks
Exhausting stuff!!!
Last Thursday I led a guided walk at Langland’s Moss Nature Reserve in South Lanarkshire. It was basically bog beasties training, or as much as you can squeeze into 2 hours. 11 people attended and we walked along the boardwalk, dipping for aquatic beasts in a big ditch full of water, sweep-netting in the trees by the edge of the bog and looking at some of the bog mosses. I really enjoyed myself, and everyone else seemed to be smiling their heads off too, which made me even happier. The best part was having my students try out sweep-netting and really going crazy thrashing at the rushes and trees. One lady thrashed so hard I think most of the bugs in her net were a bit mangled. But I guess it’s all for a good cause! I really hope I have inspired at least a few of them to start recording invertebrates or maybe mosses on the bog.
On Saturday (1st October) I gave another presentation about my apprenticeship at the Butterfly Conservation member’s day at Battleby, near Perth. I was a bit more nervous than my previous presentation, because I recognised a great many faces in the audience, including my mentor, Paul Kirkland, and the Big Boss of Butterfly Conservation, Dr Martin Warren. I giggled a bit, due to nerves, but got a great deal of praise afterwards, so it can’t of been that silly. The most difficult thing, however, was trying to cram 8 months-worth of apprenticeship into 15 minutes on stage!
I have another talk coming up in November, so I imagine it will be like water off a ducks back soon.
I’ll leave you with some photos from the bog beasties walk at Langlands Moss.
Daisy
