Conservation - to do a little...

This week has been full of conservation, with the practice at the beginning of the week, and the theory at the end.

On Monday, we had our first full field day out, and our first encouter with local Cornish conservation. We were taken to three Cornwall Wildlife Trust sites, a managed wood, a heathland site, and some beautiful vegetated sand dunes. There were two main conclusions I reached by the end of the day, one was that I really want to be a ranger, and work for conservation/wildlife in Britain, and the other was that my previous 'get rid of humans and let everything go back the way it was' attitude isn't going to work.

Britain is a totally managed landscape, and has been for so long, that we have actually created new habitats around which our species have adapted. For example the heathland, which the CWT are working so hard to restore, is an old china clay site, and the industrial activities there actually maintained the heath. Once the china clay works shut down, the rhododendron set in and was actually starting to take over. It was a similar story at Devichoys wood, when the CWT took it over, it was full of bracken, Japanese knotweed and rhododendron. The ranger we met was a funny mixture of boundless enthusiasm and pessimism - he said that without intervention, pretty much all of Britain would be covered in rhododendron and knotweed. Overall though, he and the other officer we spoke to painted a positive picture, and everyone came away from the day feeling as if the outlook for the environment isn't totally gloomy.

However, on Friday, we had the complete opposite. We had a presentation from a lady from the Marine Conservation Society, who had worked with turtles in Sri Lanka, and seven student presentations relating to conservation issues. After being bombarded with theory all day, everyone was distinctly subdued, as the complexity of conservation, with human nature being what it is, really sank in. I found a good Edmund Burke quote today though on the Paradise Park website: " Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little. "

Maybe that is it, the heart of what conservation is.

Badgers, Birds and Beetles

Just noticed how long it has been since I last posted, shameful, but also a reflection of how busy things are down here. Part of it is because I'm having to do twice the amount of work for everything, to compensate for the lack of scientific background, but most of it is just the sheer volume of work we're doing.

I'll try and summarise what we've been up to. The most exciting thing was doing some bird ringing. I did this in Ukraine, mist netting and watching as the scientist ringed the birds, but I had forgotten how great the buzz is when you're holding these fragile little animals in your hand (and they're doing their best to peck you). This time we weren't allowed to do the extraction from the net, but we were allowed to ring the birds, so I ringed a female blackbird, and a blue tit, which almost drew blood when it attacked me - they're feisty little things. We also ringed a redwing, a couple of firecrests (smallest British bird), chaffinches (which are absolutely beautiful close up), a blackcap, and a woodpecker. The woodpecker was particularly agrieved and drilled some very impressive holes in the ringers fingers. I'm really tempted to do my bird ringing experience now.

I can't remember whether I mentioned before, but I'm angling for a specific project from amongst our list of possibles. The list includes primate study in South Africa, African Grey Parrots in Cameroon, Cowbirds in Canada, Turtles in the Cayman Islands and Management Methods in New Zealand. Of course the one I want to do involves wading birds in Essex. :-) It's to do with a proposal called 'Managed Realignment'. This is where sea wall defences are breached to allow reclaimed agricultural land to become salt marsh again. The project involves driving round 15-20 sites with a tent and monitoring bird use and sampling marine invertebrates. Perfect!

Spare time has been severely limited the last couple of weeks, as I've been researching Tasmanian birds, Ukrainian badgers and now beetles for a report that has to be in tomorrow (hurrah!). I did get to go to Godrevy National Trust beach and look at some seriously fat seals lying about, including a very portly white pup.

We've had lectures on cooperative breeding among long-tailed tits, sexual selection (ie female mate choice and its determining effect on male morphology), and using stable isotopes of Nitrogen, Carbon and Hydrogen to determine bird diet and migration patterns.

All in all, it's unbelievably hard work, but very very interesting. For the first time since I've been here, I am totally convinced that I am in the right place, doing completely the right course. It's a pretty wonderful feeling!