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.

Its been a while.....

Its been a while since I have updated my blog but I have been really busy with my conservation work. So here is a summary of what I have been up to -

We have been busy at Parc Slip nature reserve (http://parcslipnr.blogspot.co.uk/) clearing ditches and sowing wildflower mixes.  And riding around on the resident giant Brian the Badger



 
I have made an appearance in the international Venture Travel Magazine who interviewed me about my challenge.
 
I won the South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre (SEWBREC) (http://www.sewbrec.org.uk/) young wildlife recorder of the year which include gift vouchers for the NHBS website (I still haven't decided what to spend them on).
 
 
 
I have joined the Glamorgan Fungus Group and this year will be recording all my fungi finds at my local nature reserve with the help of my dad (currently 24 species). I'm not the only one at the reserve who likes fungi, you can see Door snails snacking on jelly ears in the photo above.
 
 
 
I have been busy enjoying the signs of Spring after a long winter.
 
And coppicing with Butterfly Conservation to help the High Brown Fritillary at its last known site in Wales.
 
 
 
Throughout March I have been out with my local amphibian and reptile group helping toads across the roads to their breeding sites. And some frogs as well (see below)
 
 
 
 
 
It hasn't all been hard work I have had chance to try out my new Trangia Camp stove that I had for Christmas. It cooks my favourite Chicken Tikka Massala well.
 
 
 
And took some time out to snooze in a tree.
 
 
I was interviewed by ITV Wales Coast & Country about my challenge and signs of spring (Series 2 Episode 2).
 
And I have been interviewed by The Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales for their podcast -   http://youtu.be/y-2J_yG9tbk
 
 
Enough of all that, on with the challenge!
 
 
 
I stumbled across this Spindle tree in my local woods which is another tick off my list.
 
Spindle (Euonymus europaeus)
 The Spindle gets its name from the fact that it was used for hand spinning wool before the spinning wheel was invented. Its other names of "prickwood" "skewerwood" and "pincushion shrub" give you a clue that wood from this bush was also used for skewers, toothpicks, pegs and knitting needles. The tree has bright pink berries which were once dried and powdered and rubbed into children's hair as a cure for headlice.
 
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