Just wanted to say hello everyone...
....and a big thank you for such a great site! I'm new here, and looking forward to chatting and learning loads from my visits to WAB. Really glad I've found it!
A bit about me: Well, I've lived here on the edge of Bristol for the past ten years and, despite being just a stone's throw from the city, am very lucky to have a beautiful wooded river valley backing onto our street....which means a garden full of birds; buzzards often circling overhead; a badger sett nearby; roe deer and kingfishers counted amongst the locals - and, very recently, a pair of beautiful foxes ambling around our lawn at breakfast-time!
I was born and grew up amongst the ancient woodlands and North Downs of Kent, and am an honorary Northumbrian by marriage! One of the specialties of my native Kent - orchids - are amongst my many wildlife passions (which range from fungi to frogs, bats to butterflies, birds to reptiles, badgers to beetles - and everything in between!)
Before we had children, my husband and I used to do a lot of conservation volunteering, running our local BTCV Conservation Volunteer group back in Kent and going out on weekly tasks with the Avon Wildlife Trust when we moved West. I also spent a year back in the 1980s as a Volunteer Field Officer for BTCV Kent.
Now, we keep involved with nature conservation by doing BTO, UK Phenolgy surveys and the like with our children - and enjoy pond dipping, rock-pooling, following badger tracks and searching for oak apples, watching our garden woodpeckers....all those things the kids (and we!) love doing....
As our youngest child is disabled, getting out to some parts of the countryside can be quite a test of our ingenuity and physical strength sometimes - but we're very determined he won't miss out (thank goodness for all-terrain pushchairs
- especially when faced with the Northumbrian dunes or the slopes of the Cheviots!)
I feel I've got a bit out of touch with the wider nature conservation world these past few years - so it's really great to have found this friendly, informative community of like-minded folk. Looking forward to being a part of it!
Best wishes to all....
Willow