"That's a very anoraky thing to do," I was told by a visitor as I walked down to look across the lagoon last week. I had to confess that it was. I was counting the number of planks in our new boardwalk. And my boss thinks I don't have enough to do... There was a reason for it (honest) that I won't bore you with right now, but it made me realise how much a warden's job involves counting.
I do it automatically. When I walked round the reserve at first light today, I didn't just notice black-tailed godwits, I noted that there were eight, busy feeding in the shallows. When I stood by the estuary last night, impressed by the swirling mass of shape-shifting starlings preparing to dive into the reedbeds, I estimated how many thousands there were. Not just because it's useful to record, but also because I know that "How many starlings are coming into roost?" is a question that I'll be asked many times through the autumn (28 times so far, to be precise).
We judge our conservation success by the number of pairs of lapwings that breed here, our success in our education work by the number of children who come and have a quality hands-on experience of nature, the contribution that our visitors make to the RSPB's work by the number of pounds that they spend in the shop, with every penny going to our conservation work. So, I felt the need to share some numbers with you. Can you work out what the numbers relate to?
> Visitors to Conwy in the last 12 months
> Children who've experience nature hands-on in the last 12 months
> Bird species recorded at Conwy since we opened the gates in 1995
> Planks in the boardwalk
> % reduction in use of tap water in the last year
> Welsh mountain ponies grazing on the reserve
> Water rails calling in our reedbed this spring
The answers are 5, 8, 10, 230, 655, 2,602 95,460 - but which is which?
The lady who called me "a bit anoraky" already knows the answer to the boardwalk question - and I bet she'll remember it everytime she treads the boards.