Post 450 - Another Year of My Nature Hunting - an awesome 2016!

Hey everyone, Post 450 and first things first, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

I always like to mark significant numbers with an interesting post, so it's quite handy that this post 450 comes as it's nearly the end of 2016. One of the things I got for Christmas was a little film that Dad had put together, a sort of digital scrapbook of a lot of the things I'd got up to in 2016. It's a really nice little film and he left it without a soundtrack so that I could put another Christmas present to good use. I have a little digital music studio kit for the PC so I wrote and recorded the soundtrack! It's a simple one for now but as I get more used to the setup expect more of this :-)

Well it's such a nice little film and it shows lots of the nice things I got up to this year so I thought what better thing could I use for summing up my year. Here it is, hope you like it...

The film has also reminded me that a lot of people made it a great year so we added the thank you message at the end. Instead of making a big long list of credits on the film I thought I'd list the folks here that have helped to make my year awesome -

Georgey Spanswick, Jonathon Cowap & Joanita Musisi at Radio York 

for the interviews 

Jill & Simon Warwick and all at Nosterfield Nature Reserve

Thanks to Jill for all the help with Moth ID's, and Charles too... 

...and of course to Barry for the moth trap

Thanks to East Dales Ringing Group for the ringing sessions.

Thank you to the Springwatch team for  my Unsprung hero award 

and especially to Lindsey Chapman for the lovely interview

Lin at Haggewoods for a great day at a new ancient woodland

it was awesome watching the dragonflies emerge.

Lots of folks at the BTO like Ieuan, Viola, Andy & Paul 

and the Cameron Bespolka Trust for an incredible Birdcamp

All the young birders & naturalists I've met at Birdcamp, Birdfair and MigFest

Jess French for lots of RT's and encouragement

and a great mention of my blog at birdfair

People like Chris Packham, Anneka Svenska,  David Lindo, Alan Hinkes

and Mike Dilger for being so inspiring, friendly and encouraging

Roger & Rosy Key for some great bug hunts!

Luke Tilley & The Royal Entomological Society

I enjoyed being a part of National Insect Week

Nikki Bardsley & my teacher Mrs Anderson 

for helping me enter the Big Bang Fair

So many people on twitter! The list would be too long so sorry not to mention

all of the awesome supporters and friends - I'll do a bit of that on Twitter. 

and thank you to the 7141 people (so far) that have signed my petition 

- I'll do an update on that quite soon.

One of the main bits of the video is about my 2016 Yorkshire Reserves challenge. I learnt a lot from doing this, the main thing being just how big Yorkshire is! Mum and Dad spent a lot of time driving but we all had a great time and found lots of great new places for nature and walking. This year I think I have visited over 60 nature reserves at least 50 in Yorkshire. So I didn't manage to get to all the Yorkshire reserves yet but I will carry on. Another thing I learnt is not to rush this as you don't always get to see them at their best. There are lots of people to thank from the Wildlife Trusts who have also been awesome supporters this year.

Stephanie Hilbourne & Johnny Hughes for the RT's

Lucy McRobert & Leanne Manchester 

for lots of encouragement and opportunities

Jono Leadley at YWT  for lots of advice on Yorkshire reserves

and for letting me sell my calendar in your webshop

Richard Sykes for putting the calendar on the webshop

Lucy, Jennie, & Melissa  

for the chance to write a piece for Summer

Nature is awesome, and I've had a great time sharing my passion for it. I wouldn't have met many of these people if I hadn't started my blog. Thank you all so very much (and anyone I might have forgotten) for making 2016 such an awesome year.

I haven't decided if I'll start a new challenge yet but I'm thinking about it. If anyone has got any suggestions let me know. I'll certainly carry on with the Yorkshire reserves challenge as there's still some great places to visit yet.

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.