Hi, I'm Rudi, i'm 8 years old and my favourite book is 'Tarka the Otter' by Henry Williamson. Its about the life of an otter named Tarka and British Wildlife. One night i was reading the book with my dad and i said that i wanted to see all the animals in the book, he said i should do it and call it the Tarka Challenge. My Tarka Challenge started on 1st January 2012. The book contains 89 birds, 54 land based animals, 120 plants and 56 aquatic organisms.

The rules are simple, i must either see each thing myself or photograph it using my trail camera. I will try and see each thing on my local patch (Ogmore River Catchment) but may need to look somewhere else in Britain.

Ogmore River

26/02/12

We went for a walk down the river today and cooked some bacon sandwiches on the riverbank. I think I saw my first Whimbrel but it might have been a small Curlew. We saw herons, mute swans, pied wagtails, teal and mallards.





Snipe Patrol




We went looking for Snipe today. We didnt see any but i did get stuck in a bog and the water went over my wellies. We saw a Raven, some Sphagnum Moss and a Pony.



When we got home we had some lunch then my little brother spotted this Rat under our bird feeder. Mum was shouting but i was smiling because i could cross another thing off my list.

Walk down the lane

08/02/12

After school we went for a walk down the lanes. The village pond was frozen. We saw these in the fields -

 Buzzard



 Redwing, the first time i have seen them.



 Buzzard



Lapwing