My life with ecology: Applied Ecology degree, my first year

Having spent many years working in an office I decided I wanted to do something more worthwhile and take on a challenge. I have always been an outdoors person, growing up in Cornwall and have always been interested in the wildlife around me. I decided to do a foundation degree in Ecology as I felt it would be relevant to our changing environment. I decided to stay in Cornwall to do my foundation degree and Newquay offered a very practical degree which I felt I would be better suited to, and after spending years in an office I was looking forward to getting out and about more.

I started the course in September 2010. The first year of my course concentrated on learning about the Cornish countryside and the processes that have changed it such as mining. We also got too learn about different habitats and communities that make the environment that our wildlife lives in and also bird survey techniques. As well as the practical side we learnt how to collect data and then how to present it in a professional manner as scientific reports. This included doing a timed count of Birds along the Hayle Estuary, surveying hedgerows in Perranarworthal and recording ancient trees with the Woodland Trust in Colan Woods. We learnt how to decipher this data and use it correctly to make conclusions for our reports.

Colan Woods, Newquay

Other techniques we got to practice included kick sampling and netting for invertebrates in rivers as well as scrub clearance to help improve a site for Marsh Fritillaries and building Cornish hedges. In the classroom we got to practice putting our data into the Shannon Weiner and Sampson Indexes to find the diversity of the college grounds as well as how to use taxonomic keys to identify slugs and plants. Field trips included those to Kennel Vale Woods, Perranporth, St Agnes, Marazion, Golitha Falls, Falmouth and the River Gannel in Newquay. We had lessons on diversity, classification and evolution as well as an introduction to the basics of Ecology. These have proved handy when explaining certain aspects in reports or to people. We also got to write two management plans, one on the primary school pond at Perranarworthal and one on a species chosen for each group; we got the Southern Marsh Orchid.

My tutor, laying on our new Cornish Hedge

As this was the first year the College had run this Degree there were many hiccups along the way. Some lessons and trips had to be missed of as we run out of time which I have heard they have since corrected. Unfortunately we missed out on mammal trapping, phase one habitat surveying and learning statistics amongst other things in the first year which was a shame. As our group was small (only 8 students) and it was the first year of the course we were not able to choose between the two options (global or consultancy) for our second year, we all had to do the consultancy route. At the end of the first year if I had a choice I think I would have chosen the global route, but now I am not sure.

My modules for the first year were;

· Ecology of Aquatic Systems

· Birds of the Western Paleartic

· Personal & Employability Skills

· Development

· History of the British Countryside

· Habitats and Communities

· Diversity, Classification & Evolution

· Environmental Enterprises

· Introduction to Ecology

· Fieldwork