Meet Connor…

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Getting to know Connor….

1. Where do you find nature near your home?

   Everywhere.  Everywhere around me.  I’m an amateur wildlife photographer and recently I’ve been looking at different spiders in my tower – there are lots in here at this time of year as they take advantage of the insects that have come inside.

   In the Spring/Summer I go to Haggerston Park – there’s a wildflower area and a pond full of newts.  I’ve seen herons and blackcaps there too.  There’s also the canal nearby and all sorts of life there.

2. What is your favourite activity when you spend time in nature?

   Photography – observing wildlife and watching it do its thing.  People become curious and they get involved too – it’s great connecting people with nature.

3. Who is your outdoor hero? 

   David Attenborough and Steve Irwin

4. Best thing you have ever eaten that you’ve foraged yourself?
   Blackberries

5. The best view you have ever seen in your life.  Who were you with?
   In Ecuador – I went to collect data for my undergraduate studies in Zoology, I was looking at the effects of human disturbance on the mammal community.  A fellow student and I had gone up a huge hill  (2,500 metres high) in the Andes to check leaf litter lizard traps and on the way back we were rewarded with the most spectacular view of the sunset and clouds below us.

6. Why do you think that all children should have time in nature at school?
   Wellbeing.  So they can disconnect from everyday life and immerse themselves in a different world.  So they can gain a different understanding of life around them and appreciate nature.  So they can gain respect for nature - reinforce good habits and other attitudes that ripple through society.

7. If you were in charge of the school day describe what it would be like.
   Nature walks during break time.  Visit green spaces in the school grounds and give children opportunities to interact with the nature that’s around them.
   A chance to study natural history at GCSE level.

8. Do you remember being really surprised by something you saw in nature?
   At my nan’s caravan in Clacton I went off wondering through the fields – there was a pile of abandoned rubbish in the middle of some grassland where there would often be an adder basking in the sunshine on top of a black plastic liner.  I’d been watching the adder one time when I turned to go back and saw something on the ground right next to me – I thought it was mud or poo, but it turned out to be a female adder in the grass.

9. Favourite animal we might see in the UK.
   No such thing as a favourite but I’ll go with the pine Marten.

10. What is your favourite season and why?
    I love Spring when everything bursts into life.  And Autumn as well – I like the times in between the extremes.

11. Describe a natural landscape you return to – either in reality or in your imagination.  Why do you go back there?

    Ecuador – the first site I went to – Tesoro Escondido (Hidden Treasure).  It’s primary rainforest broken up with cacao plantations and communities really integrated into the forest. There were so many colourful amphibians there and glow worms in the reeds that looked like stars – as if there were stars in the reeds.