Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! A summary of 2017...

With Christmas being only a day away and 2017 drawing to a close its time to reflect on what I've done and achieved this year.

January
I was pleased to have been able to write an article in New Nature, a newly founded magazine which  is written by young naturalists. I also finally managed to see Waxwings, a beautiful bird that breeds in Scandinavia.



February

My favourite photo this year was taken in February, of a robin in a snow flurry at RSPB Pulborough Brooks. This month I managed to go birding a lot, seeing barnacle and white-fronted geese for the first time at Cuckmere Haven.



March
In March I saw a drake goldeneye, which was a lifer! I also was lucky enough to write another article in New Nature magazine, called 'why is birdwatching uncool?' and I wrote a blog for Wildlife Watch (Junior branch of the Wildlife Trusts) on finding nature in urban areas.




April
I launched my photography website thanks to Zenfolio and visited Old Lodge Nature Reserve where I saw redstart, woodlark and tree pipit.



May
This month I reviewed two books on hedgehogs, 'A Prickly Affair' and 'Hedgehog' by Hugh Warwick for A focus on nature. I also visited one of my favourite reserves, Rye Harbour. 




June
June marked the start of #30DaysWild, where I got out into the garden and planted pollinator-friendly flowers and fruit and veg, payed more attention to spotting nature when out dog-walking and when out with friends and blogged about all that I did!




July
I was pleased to have an article in the RSPB's wingbeat magazine about the rise of young naturalists and social media, where I featured 5 other young naturalists as well. In July I managed to go ringing a few times and got a ringing tick of a yellowhammer!



August
At the start of the month I was asked to write a review for Haith's bird food and robin feeder which is still hanging in the garden as I write this, its also finally been visited by a robin lots of times! In August the 'Waders of Europe' book came out and I was lucky enough to have my oystercatcher photo on part of the front cover.



September
September was a quiet month for me but I did go out birding a few times and went looking for fungi at my local country park. And of course it was my birthday!


October
I started blogging again after getting my laptop fixed and wrote about a visit to RSPB Pulborough Brooks and Old Lodge in Ashdown Forest where I saw my first dartford warbler of the year. My blog post which was about that, in my opinion, there are not a lot of girls interested in nature and birding caused a lot of debate on twitter (http://myathebirder.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/having-been-birding-now-for-5-years.html.).


November
In November I went down to Pagham Harbour, where I saw 100s of brent geese, dunlin, grey plover and redshank. Also I created a photography page on instagram (@myabambrickphotography).



December
December has been quite a busy month and it started off with a feature on bbc wildlife's social media, which was part of a gallery of photos from young wildlife photographers uk, of my robin photo. A couple of days later I wrote a post for 'Our Bright Future' which was on their blog about why I wanted to take part in their campaign. Lastly I was pleased to be asked to have my photos featured on A focus on Nature's social media as 'pictures of the week'.



In reflection I am quite pleased on what I have seen, achieved and photographed this year and I am looking forward to seeing what 2018 holds. I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and wildlife-filled new year!







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