California

157 Birds, 66 new.
29 Mammals, 16 new.
Blog update to follow! Soon!

Farne Isles

I went to Yorkshire and the Farne Isles with my family and I got a chance to take some photographs of the Puffins, Artic Terns and other birds and animals on the islands.
Here’s  the favourite photo I took:


And here's a good photo my dad took:


Full slideshow here.

Work Experience

Over the past two weeks I’ve been doing work experience at MKA Ecology and Birdlife International.

I was at MKA Ecology for 8 days and birdlife international for 2 days.

MKA ecology is an environmental consultancy that specializes in doing environmental surveys for their clients. At MKA ecology I joined and helped do some of their surveys which were probably the best part of the job. These surveys were carried out for various species including a bird and a badger survey, as well as plenty of bat surveys. I wrote reports and helped with invoices. I also did some territory mapping for the different species of birds that were seen on the bird survey. This part was also interesting as you could see the territories come together as you put the various different surveys of the same place together. These territory maps could be useful for showing what species were there permanently and what species were passing through. I found the different aspects of it interesting and I enjoyed my time there.

At Birdlife international I worked on an internet project. I looked up on cables and transmission lines in Egypt and information such as who constructed them where they go, who funded them etc. It was hard to find the information, but it could be useful to saving large birds including storks, vultures and eagles that use these areas as a flight path. Unfortunately these high wind areas are also perfect for wind farms (and therefore transmission lines.) The birds crash into the turbines or the lines and they die. This is one of the key projects for birdlife international and for more information go to Birdlife’s webpage: http://www.birdlife.org/flyways/index.html. I also talked to lots of people within birdlife international about their jobs that they do and why they worked there. I really enjoyed working there for the two days I was there, I found the work interesting and it was great meeting everyone that worked there.

Red Kite

Red Kite over St. Albans cathedral.

Parrot Crossbill

East Sussex – sketch.

Goldcrest

I painted this picture of a Goldcrest for my Dads Birthday.

Sabine's Gull and two Grey Phalaropes

Sabine's Gull and two Grey Phalaropes at Grafham Water.