2014.... A fresh start

For a number of reasons 2013 wasn't a great year for myself and this was reflected at times with this blog.  As a result blog posts were (intentionally) less frequent and so were my patch visits.  Towards the later third of the year I had almost completely lost my birding/wildlife mojo...almost. 

But as 2014 approaches I feel a renewed sense of positivity and have plans in place to make both my patch visits more interesting and blog posts more frequent. 

So what does 2014 hold in store for myself and the patch I hear you ask.  Well, some aspects will stay the same.  I will still do regular counts/checks on the resident patch birds and look out for passage migrants during the migration period.  But there is a lot of time when an arable patch such as Shenstone can be quite unproductive so in 2014 I have decided to use such 'dead time' and more to focus on a 1km square area of the patch and try and undertake a bio-blitz of the area.

 The 1km square area I have chosen is on the Stone side of the patch and I will endeavour to record as many species of fauna and flora I can within the said area. A map of my chosen area is shown at the end of this post.  Fellow wildlife blogger and patch plodder Mark P (http://doorstepbirding.blogspot.co.uk/) is also doing the same on his patch, which is 2-3 miles up the road.  It will be interesting to compare our finds from the two sites and I think it's fair to say there will be a fair bit of banter and needling between us!

 So that's the plan...let's see what 2014 brings.

 Cheers
Jase

 Map of the 2014 BioBlitz area



Click on map to enlarge
Posted by

9 comments:

  1. Mark28 December 2013 at 03:09

    Rivalry aside ;) it will be good to have a bit of mutual support, and I reckon it will be an excellent learning experience. Good luck !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous28 December 2013 at 05:59

    I can totally relate to the kind of year you`ve had, Jase. Mine was far from being a good one, as well. But like you say.....onwards & upwards for 2014.
    Wishing you all the best, mate, with everything you`ve got planned.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jason K28 December 2013 at 07:29

    Cheers Mark...it should be interesting and a learning experience of some other areas of wildlife

    Cheers Deano. Yep, I think we will be both happy to put 2013 behind us. I hope 2014 is a better one for you too mate!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Warren Baker28 December 2013 at 08:15

    I can see where you're coming from jase, once the spring is over, I struggle to find much thats new for the year until the Autumn arrives :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jason K28 December 2013 at 08:18

    Well I thought I would give me a new impetus during the quite periods and add more depth/posts to the Blog mate. You never know, spending more time in the field I make pick up the odd interesting bird (flyover or otherwise)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Richard Harbird29 December 2013 at 04:30

    Hi Jason,

    Its always a good idea to set yourself a fresh challenge. I hope it goes well for you.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jason K29 December 2013 at 06:37

    Thanks for the words of encouragement Richard. I hope you have a good 2014 at Morton Baggot

    ReplyDelete
  8. Pam31 December 2013 at 07:37

    Good Luck with your 'Bio Blitz' Jason and a Happy New Year to you!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jason K31 December 2013 at 13:03

    Thanks Pam. I hope 2014 is a good wildlife year for you to!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)