Never tried this blog business before but here goes. I'm one of those lucky people who's got a job that involves me on a day to day basis with wildlife, and I guess more importantly with telling other people about it.



This is my patch - Malham Tarn in the Yorkshire Dales and I thought I'd try and give you some idea of the changing wildlife I come across in the area. Last year was a bit of a milestone in terms of our birds. Together with a local birdwatcher I put together an annual "Wildlife and Weather" report for the area. Anyway last year we got to our two hundredth species of bird for the site - a Little Egret that stayed for a few days in October. One of the great things about being at a place like this on a daily basis is the not knowing of what's going to be there next. That's not to say that the "usuals" aren't pretty good too.

Walking the dog this morning I had two weasels on the boardwalk on the reserve area, a dog fox heading resolutely towards the rabbit warren, countless coot, wigeon and teal on the Tarn itself, a few goldeneye and the usual nuthatches, tree creepers and tits in the woods. A green woodpecker has been with us since July and it now busy calling and flying all over the palce looking for a mate - if it doesn't I think it will head off down into the valley - they've never bred here. Oh, and finally the snowdrops have just come out this week. A sure sign of spring but February is often our worst month of the year and I wouldn't be suprised to see some snow before the winter really ends.

Hopefully I'll try and keep you updated on a fairly regular basis.