It is now nearly six months since I took on the post of Conservation Director for the RSPB.  It has been quite a ride.  Extremely enjoyable but with a few bumps along the way.

In that time I have also written over one hundred blog entries.  Much to my surprise I have rarely been short of inspiration.  I think that's partly because the outside world has been busy: the UKNEA, NEWP, NIAs, EBS, CAP, NPPF and any other acronym you could bear to mention have all been launched in the last few months.  Some were welcome and received acclaim (UKNEA), some caused alarm (CAP and NPPF) while others show considerable promise but it is just a little too early to tell how significant they will be for nature (NEWP, NIAs and EBS).

It has also easy to be inspired when the RSPB itself creates such great stories: from booming bitterns to spoon-billed sandpipers and from our fabulous nature reserves (some of which I have been lucky enough to visit in this period) through to the research we do to understand what is happening to our wildlife.  It is this that keeps me going even in the darkest days when others fail to appreciate the urgent need to act to tackle the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change.  The RSPB and many others up and down the country will continue to step up so that we have more nature on our doorstep.

And before I carry on tip-tapping away at the keyboard, I thought I'd ask if you had any views about what you would like to hear from me on this blog.  Do you want more about our campaigns? More about what we are doing for wildlife on our land? More about the people that make the RSPB such a fantastic place to work? Or anything else/

Let me have your views!