So, there I was, back in late 2017 with ambition to get back on track and thinking I’d have plenty of time over the winter to write some pieces for this blog … and here we are, over 5 years later with not a single (published) post to show for it.

Will it be any different this time around? Who knows, but I’m going to give it another go. A lot has happened, not only in my life, but in general. There are some excellent new methods to get content out to those interested, such as Substack, and there is even development around AI writing with tools like ChatGPT. However, the goal is to restart the blog simple … not fill my plate up with too much, I can add more content as it comes. This means I’ll stick with the following:

• Bee-News – all things related to Hymenoptera, so also wasps and ants. Posts in this category will probably be fairly regular, maybe once a month or so.
• Book Club – books on nature or related topics. Infrequent, but I’ve read some great books since the last one and so will be a bit more common at first. One of the books I’m considering is The Collector by John Fowles. I have half a draft ready but was never sure it fit … we’ll see.
• Butterfly Bulletin – the name describes it fairly well. Again, expect to see regular posts on this.
• Flower Fields Forever – plants of all types really. This category will be irregular because I’m least knowledgeable about this topic, though I do have some interesting orchids etc. I want to highlight.
• Odonata Update – all things dragonfly and damselfly. A regular that covers an area I’m really interested in.
• RAm Report – reptiles and amphibians will be covered here. I do not expect to be posting on a regular basis in this category, but I do have some great observations I want to highlight.

Will I be leaving anything behind? Well, yes:

• Proyecto Lepides – I was part of an organisation here that tracked butterfly, moth, dragonfly, and damselfly populations in Cantabria but unfortunately it has ceased to exist. It was actually one of the reasons I stopped posting here. A job, family & young kids, and then learning something new in such an in-depth manner (reading, taking time to walk set routes or investigate new areas, sifting and IDing 1000s of photos, carefully recording each observation etc. etc. etc.) was exhausting and did not always align well. I did not want to disappoint the organisation, to which I feel I was one of the key contributors … I am still 4th on the ranking list for number of species of butterflies (92, #1 has 129) seen, 1st for moths (264, #2 has 221) and 1st for dragonflies (34, #2 has 32) all within our defined area (https://proyectolepides.observation.org/) even after little activity on my part over the past 2 years … so I did as much as I could until the founder wrapped it up.
  I am happy to have been a part of it all and if there is ever another similar organisation in the area I’ll be one of the first to join. Thanks to all who I met through this organisation … I’ve kept in touch with a couple, more on that in the future.

Is there anything I might consider adding going forward? (i.e., stuff to add to my plate.)

• Routes/Excursions – this would basically take over the stuff covered under Proyecto Lepides where I give an overview of any (day) trips I make in the area. I usually set out to go see butterflies or dragonflies in certain locations so this would be an account of those occasions. We’ll see, these take a ton of time and effort to write up. Maybe only the memorable ones with the others being a footnote in a post in one of the 6 topics above.
• Moth Matters – I own a moth trap these days and a frequent activity I’ve done over the past few years is just to put it out on our balcony and see what comes by. I’ve also IDed a few other locations where I’ve placed the trap with great results. One of the problems has been that in 2022 they replaced the street lighting from old bulbs to LED lights (great for energy efficiency but …) and man are those new LED lights ever bright! Since they’ve been in place then number of moths on our balcony has been next to none, so I’ve had to go out now, where in the past a trap on the balcony was so little effort. I’ll probably start with this topic once I get trapping again …
• Various other topics – then there are Diptera (flies – Horde of the Flies), Orthoptera (grasshoppers and crickets – ??) and Coleoptera (beetles – Beetlemania) that all really deserve their own topic … and I’ve seen some great species that would make excellent subjects for a post. We’ll see …

Where do we go from here?

I plan to post once a week (oh boy, hopefully I don’t shoot myself in the foot here) on a Tuesday with the first post being in March (on the 7th), which gives me time to finalise some of the draft posts I have planned. My goal is to keep the posts short and to the point. I’ll continue to include some links at the bottom of the post, and I might add a heading for Random Comments at the end of posts so I can jot down some things I’ve been busy with outside of stuff to do with nature etc.

Random Comment of the Post – We now drive a fully electric vehicle (BEV) … I have to say, life-changing really. Hopefully you have the chance/opportunity to switch too, it’s great.