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opting in to the conglomerate scheme then let s direct it where we want it to go as an rspb member and ex employee gareth s voyage of discovery fills me with great hope with the rspb claim that 91 pence in every pound donated is spent on conservation to know it s getting to the right places congratulations to gareth for spreading the good news from the forests it s great to know that all is not yet lost not yet kathy x p s thank you to gareth for the use of his photographs share this tweet like loading posted by naturebites october 26 2012 categories uncategorized tags ed stafford gareth jones gola rainforest guardian environment rainforest reporter rspb together for trees leave a comment exciting news i am extremely pleased and excited to announce that ken and i are now offering guided wildlife tours on anglesey birds will obviously be our main focus ken is the birdman of anglesey after all but we will also show you anglesey s spectacular scenery and catch up with seasonal wildlife spectacles there will soon be a spangly new website for you to peruse and seasonal tours for you to choose from until then just give us a call or drop us an email and we can have a chat about what you d like to see and do we re hoping you ll want to join us yourself or perhaps buy a tour as a gift for another nature lover and we re happy to book you in for dates in the future beginners will benefit from tailored tuition leaving you with the skills necessary to observe wildlife when you leave us experts will benefit from our patch knowledge and ken s anglesey birds expertise really excited to share this news with you and hope that some of you will join us for a tour kathy ken xxx share this tweet like loading posted by naturebites october 19 2012 categories uncategorized 6 comments a focus on nature there is really only one thing that i need to go outdoors and observe wildlife to the extent that i do binoculars at different points through the year i might be clad in shorts and flip flops or layer upon layer to fight off those impressive anglesey winds but to really see the magic of a tiny goldcrest or a far away godwit i need a little magnification whilst working at cemlyn bay this summer i briefly met a lady called lucy working as part of a team to promote young conservationists and as any diligent blogger would i quickly dashed off as i was on my way to a scoop namely kayaker john willacy had just arrived back from circumnavigating britain in his boat after filming john s return still to this day i have not shared the footage as my blog will not upload it i found out more about the programme that lucy is a part of a focus on nature afon is an organisation to open eyes minds and imagination of young conservationists and to nurture their career in this field the panel consisting of stephen moss nature writer broadcaster and bafta award winning television producer notably the original producer of springwatch and producer of big cat diary pete gamby dynamic sales and marketing manager for opticron dr rob lambert environmental historian from nottingham university and one of the most interesting folk you ll ever meet and of course lucy mcrobert an environmental history graduate and nature writer this inspiring team of visionaries have developed the idea of afon and now offer youngsters setting out in a career of conservation the chance to develop their field skills with a pair of binoculars an often very expensive and yet essential edition to someone s kit although this an opportunity for many the candidates do have to compete for their optics showing their passion for conservation through nature writing photography and more it may have been that i decided to write about afon in a desperate plea for their assistance luckily this is not the case having submitted work from this very blog the panel have selected me as one of the recipients of their award amazing thank you it may be apparent from my posts and photographs that i have benefited from use of binoculars throughout these weren t mine though the adorable ken croft my birding mentor and friend used to lend me his super duper binoculars and forfeit his own sightings a difficult thing for a birder to do believe me and latterly he lent me an old pair of binoculars to see me through my contract with the wildlife trust at cemlyn bay massive thanks to ken for his kindness and generosity here without these binoculars i may not have made it through to the final of the rainforest reporter competition written many of my blogs or seen any of the wondeful birds i ve caught up with this year so yes this afon prize of opticron binoculars is very relevant and not wasted on somebody who won t benefit i am very excited and will cherish this prize i have so many plans for the future and for my career and these binoculars will kick start me on my way wahoo you can check out other winning entries and even apply for yourself here this scheme is set up to help so please don t be intimidated the panel want to encourage you so apply and see how you get on for those that won t be applying i d still check out the site as i expect that we ll hear more from these names in the future and you ll meet them there first kathy x eagerly anticipating her new binoculars share this tweet like loading posted by naturebites october 2 2012 categories uncategorized tags a focus on nature afon anglesey cemlyn bay dr rob lambert john willacy ken croft lucy mcrobert opticron pete gamby rspb newport wetlands stephen moss 5 comments albatross albatross is a mighty fine tune by one of my all time favourite bands fleetwood mac in fact how about setting the scene by opening up a new a tab and playing it as you read just click here the reason i have chosen to call this post albatross has nothing to do with the instrumental though yesterday wednesday 19th september i received a call from dave bateson the reserve warden up at rspb south stack having already spoken to ken he knew that i was unfortunately working down the other end of the island and would not be able to dash for a chance to see a passing black browed albatross i don t think you need to be in birding circles to appreciate quite what a bird an albatross is famed throughout the world because of their enormous wingspan longevity loyalty and a symbol of hope lost to sailors in the rime of the ancient mariner it is becoming a trend that phenomenal things are sighted from south stack when i am down in menai bridge almost this time last year ken watched as a pod of orca made their way northwards past the stack i had been living on the reserve at the time and disappointingly found myself receiving ken s excited call as i walked along the high street of menai bridge past the indian take aways bakery and coffee shops miles from the spectacle outside my own bedroom window in an annoying repetition of history i was walking in exactly the same place yesterday when i received dave s call about the probable albatross unfortunately neither i nor ken conveniently sea watching from exactly the right place managed to see an albatross black browed or otherwise however the texts and twitter speculation soon spread like wildfire or perhaps the common cold the birding world is well connected these days the bird lines and alerts have evolved are well used and form the ornithological backbone of britain with the advent of social media particularly twitter and smart phones sightings can be seen by followers all of the world in a matter of seconds it is fascinating and also scary to think that an hour after this possible black browed albatross sighting it had been coupled with an unconfirmed sighted of the same species from the isle of man the previous day and that it was stated that it was now likely that this was an individual that used to visit the scottish island of sula sgeir perhaps is it perhaps one or both of these possibles was a definite and perhaps this albatross is visiting the north atlantic rock of sula sgeir and perhaps this is the same individual that has been sighted there before black browed albatross should after all be breeding on the other side of the world the likelihood of multiple birds travelling up the irish sea is small but there has often been speculation about the number that may be taking refuge on our remote islands who knows i certainly don t and without politely asking mister albatross to explain himself i think i m unlikely to find out it isn t out of the realm of possibility that this albatross has in fact being visiting scotland since 1967 when an albatross was recorded on bass rock amongst the gannets after this date there were various sightings at various scottish locations gannets close at hand indeed our very own ken croft saw his one and only black browed albatross from south stack reserve back in 2005 it is thought that this is the individual that was then known to reside on sula sgeir but perhaps not perhaps we have multiple long distance visitors that despite their grand proportions slip unnoticed to the remote islands of scotland fascinating as their story may be i think there is an allure in the unknown part of me hopes that they go on avoiding our gaze seeking solace in our still wild places kathy x share this tweet like loading posted by naturebites september 20 2012 categories uncategorized tags albatross black browed albatross fleetwood mac ken croft menai bridge orca rspb south stack sula sgeir leave a comment helvellyn triathlon my last post was all about anglesey marine week 2012 wythnos morol mon the week was all about enthusing people about our surrounding sea and through the varied and interesting range of events i am happy that we succeeded different local businesses and charities were involved all benefiting from extra exposure and some from monetary donations i can now add to that by letting you know how much money we raised for the marine conservation society anglesey wildlife walks contributed 50 of the ticket price of the heathland and seals guided walk glyn davies donated 20 of the ticket price of his talk welsh light carol mead had a donations box in her studio where she is a personal trainer and also gave up her time for free with a seaside poetry workshop where she collected 4 per child towards the cause laura who runs ann s pantry in moelfre very kindly baked some delicious madeleines and donated 20 of the price of those sold in total these guys raised a brilliant 99 which is now winging it s way over to the marine conservation society i was also able to add gift aid to that donation increasing the money to 123 75 good old gift aid everyone that attended an event should have had the opportunity to enter a prize draw to win a field guide to the marine fishes of wales and adjacent waters donated by the marine conservation society to celebrate the eight days of anglesey marine week 2012 wythnos morol mon using the time honoured method of closing your eyes and delving around with your hand the name we conjured up at random is steve lawson who joined us on outdoor active s exhilarating coasteering session i hope steve and his family enjoy this beautiful book since anglesey marine week 2012 wythnos morol mon i have been lucky enough to take a trip to the beautiful lake district and rather fortunately during perhaps the best weather of the year so far get in i had gone along to ambleside as a spectator to the helvellyn triathlon where around 700 crazy people decided to swim 1 mile though the seemingly black ullswater cycle 38 miles on the road including up the aptly named struggle and run 9 miles over the 3118 feet of helvellyn in my book anyone that completes that deserves an olympic medal at these events being a birder really comes into it s own everyone struggles to make out their loved ones in the sea of lycra and rubber and i stand there smugly with my all seeing bino vision having watched the swim and the seething mass of shiny wetsuits and blue caps in the first wave i headed off up helvellyn the place of legends i don t know why i hadn t gone with her but one weekend perhaps sixteen years ago my mum went on a helvellyn adventure teamed up with a climbing instructor and a bunch of kids she set out to the summit of helvellyn via striding edge the name alone conjures fearful images in my mind on many occasions my mum has recounted the tale of how the children skipped along the rocky ridge whilst she clung to the ground sobbing with a steep drop to her right and and certain death to her left the mist was rolling in over the top of helvellyn as i approached and this gave me reason to think about approach from a different angle missing out the infamous striding edge down where i was at that moment the sun was baking me and i stopped to drink and asked a couple that i d caught up with if they d like a photo together i figure if i do this enough times people will also randomly ask me and my friends and family on other occasions where a group photo is absolutely neccessary the couple turned out to be jill and ken who s son chris was competing in the triathlon we kept the same pace and i hope they don t mind that we chatted all the way up to the point where the paths diverged and it was either straight up the mountain or via striding edge dum dum duuummmm retelling my mum s story to the pair fired kens memories of a long forgotten trip over striding edge and from then on he was set on joining me on that rather unwelcoming misty knife edge i did my best crab impression on the very top of the ridge at times but to be quite honest the mist had cleared and i could do nothing but admire the stunning view and think of my lovely mum with her being at height issues and enjoy the moment for her jill bounded on ahead despite saying she wouldn t look down the worst bit for me was a scramble up some crumbling scree before we reached the safety of the summit i like a rock you can trust here is ken and jill at the summit i had a brief moment of false joy when i was privileged to be in the lead of all the runners as two headed up the second rise of their run white side these first two powered past me with unbelievable speed and were fifteen minutes ahead of their nearest competitors my seemingy slow descent allowed be to say well done to the first 138 runners before i reached the bottom equally sweaty and exhausted as the triatheletes embarrassingly ken and jill s son chris came a very respectable 28th i think everyone that took part was completely amazing though to add insult to injury whilst those triatheletes were probably skipping over a mountain or two i was greeted my two red and swollen knees the following day oh dear knees now fully recovered i am back in north wales and inviting you to join in with a beach clean i am organising at porth dafarch on holy island anglesey on monday 17th september it will start at 3 30pm and is part of the marine conservation society s big beachwatch weekend i adopted this beach last year and had a great team of hel...