At the beginning of the year I set myself some challenges. I’ve already written a post on how I’m getting on with my #walk1000miles challenge here. 

I walked 85.11 miles in January and am on track to walk 1000 miles in 2017. 

What of my other challenges?

#my200birdyear

I’m taking part in #my200birdyear and am realising what an enormous challenge this one is. 

I have managed to see 74 birds in January, including several species I have never seen before- bittern, water rail, Goldeneye, pintail and ferruginous duck. 

We’ve joined a local conservation and bird watching group Friend’s of Lavell Lake and have been out on their monthly bird watching walk and spent a morning volunteering with them to help increase the size of the fragmites reed bed. Many of their members are very experienced birders, and spending time with them is helping to increase our bird knowledge, not difficult at this limited stage!! 

We also went bird watching with a warden at WWT London Wetland Centre, which is where we saw the pintail. It’s really useful to be spending time with people who can explain what you’re looking at! 

Month end total: 74/200

Volunteering with LWMNTV

I wanted to complete 1000 hours of volunteering with London West Middlesex National Trust Volunteers this year. My starting hours were actually a little higher than I thought, by the end of 2016 I had completed 928.75 hours of volunteering. 

I’ve been out twice with LWMNTV in January, a cold weekend volunteering on Bookham Common improving habitat for nightingales and a day at Osterley Park in West London, carrying out heavy pruning of yew trees in the garden. That’s 15 hours of volunteering in all. 

Month end total: 943.75/1000

Goodreads 2017 Reading Challenge

They’ll be a separate post about what I’ve been reading in January later in the week, but until then here’s a selection of my reading material: 

Month end total: 13/100

Alphabet Dating

We’ve had dates A-D although not in that order! We’ve been Alpaca Walking, Beachcombing, Chocolate tasting and for a walk along the Devil’s Highway. It’s been a lot of fun so far and we’re looking forward to our other 22 dates! 

#365dayswild and #365project

I want to have a wild year, with a random act of wildness every day, and a photo every day to record the fun. This has been a wild January, with plenty of time spent outdoors and many random acts of wildness from watching red kites circle overhead to enjoying frosty mornings. Here’s my January in a picture a day: 

My final challenge was to blog more regularly, at least once a week, which I’ve more than achieved! I’ve discovered my love of writing again.

January has been a good month for me personally, I’m finding something good in every day, hope the rest of 2017 continues this way!

How was your January? Have you set any challenges or resolutions for the year ahead?