2019 Round up and HNY

I’ll start with the highlight of 2019.

The publishing of Get Your Boots On. An idea that had been in my head since 2016 and after years of writing, and then months of editing by the amazing Dived Up Publishing finally in July Get Your Boots On was out for the public to buy. Both very exciting and nerve-racking at the same time.

Back to the round up of 2019.

January started with a Rose-coloured Starling, a badger rescue and, as always, The Big Garden Bird watch.

February saw days of snow and my first Climate Strike

In March following in the footsteps of friends Sophie and Kyra at Hedgehog Friendly Town I helped highlight the netting of hedgerows by developers and came face to face with a young muntjac deer.

April was a busy month with small mammal surveys, meetings about restoring the wild flowers in my local churchyard, the swallows arriving back and the first sightings of 2019’s badger cubs.

‘Say No to Mow in May‘ saw us leave our front garden and stop cutting the grass. Within a few weeks the grass turned in to a wild flower patch full of insects, bees, small mammals and the local foxes.

While I took part in 30 Days Wild in June, I didn’t blog very much as I had my GCSE’s. Towards the end of June I started going into schools to talk about wildlife and Get Your Boots On

July was hectic. A huge thank you to everyone who made the book launch special, especially Hugh Warwick who hosted the evening and entertained everyone.

July also included a visit to an RSPCA centre as part of #GenerationKind and a visit to a Badger exhibition in Somerset.

As always August means Birdfair and a great chance to meet up with friends and make new ones.

During September I started college, but before the beginning of term we spent some time in Devon and the A Focus on Nature conference took place in London.

October was busy again, with a visit to Bristol, a Hedgehog day, fallow deer on my local patch, watching some inspiring films, walking in Wytham woods and talking to a Cub scout group.

During November I saw harvest mice for the first time and started trialling a Birdsy camera in my garden.

December seemed to be full of starling murmurations but also joining in with #Foxingday and the #ReThinkHS2 walk.

A huge thank you to everyone who takes time to read this blog and follows me on social media. I realised looking back on 2019’s posts that I seem to put a lot more on Twitter than I do on this blog. If you have Twitter you can find me @Appletonwild

A special thank you to those who have bought my book Get Your Boots On, I really appreciate all the great feedback and support. A special mention to Ben Garrod, who as ever has been amazing.

Wishing you all a wild 2020 and let’s see how much we can protect the wildlife around us.