A New Year

Well the New Year has come around and it's the time when people begin posting their roundups of 2010, hopes for 2011 and 'the year in pictures' style posts. Having only had the Blog for a couple of months and not made much use of it I don't think doing the same here that I'd really have too much to mention but I'm still in the jolly mode of the festive season so I'll give it a little bit of a go.

The year ended up with a lovely trip up to Leeds to stay with family for Christmas and New Years and a couple of visits to Fairburn Ings where I racked up a lifer in the form of a couple of Willow Tits as well as a very showy Water Rail and my first ever views of a Weasel and Mink.

Overall it's been a great year, I didn't get up to half as much birding as I would have liked but there've been some seriously good birding experiences I've had. My trip earlier in the year to Extremadura probably being my best birding experience of the year. A close second in wildlife terms was also my trip on the Pride of Bilbao, the birds amounted to a Sabine's, some Manxies, a couple of Storm Petrels and lots of Gannets and Fulmars but it was brilliant nonetheless. Watching a Bonxie come in right over the bow of the boat on the last, drizzly day being mobbed by a Storm Petrel was incredible. As were the Cetaceans, Long Finned Pilot Whales, Sperm Whales, Minke Whale, 3 Species of Dolphin and a genuinely beautiful moment where a Cuvier's Beaked Whale logged peacefully just beneath the water barely a meter from the boat were all totally new experiences for me and from the moment we set off had me hooked on Pelagic Wildlife.

So what do I want from 2011?

Really I could do well to sum it up in one word, happiness. The family and friends around me have provided me with plenty of it this year and if there's one thing that I can be bold enough to ask for this coming year it's more of the same.

In fact to ask what I want from 2011 seems a little defeatist. Here's what I'm going to get from 2011:

• See more Cetaceans, I've really bitten the bug now.
• See more Birds. More lifers and more dedicated patch working. Out at the crack of dawn type stuff.
• Keep up French. I no longer have to do a language at school so I'd really like to try and keep learning for the sake of learning it. There might also be a chance I could begin to learn some Albanian for this year which would be mega exciting.
• Succeed in my exams. Ultimately this is going to be one of the most important things I do this year so I better do it well. 

Simple enough...