Evening all. I’ve spent most of tonight sitting going through the 1,500 images submitted to the site to try and find some candidates for the Calendar I proposed last week (thanks for the feedback – overwhelmed with takers!). I’ve done some research and I think I can get an A3 calendar for about £10 but I need to check my 2 for 1 code works with so many orders! If it doesn’t the price may rise to £18 with the option of a smaller desk calendar for £10. Are people thinking the bigger the better? Does anyone know a printers who can do it cheaper? I’m going via internet sites at present.

So I’ve set about searching through the photos for photos that (a) show the Valley or its species in an interesting way (b) are varied (c) cover a range of seasons (d) show a breadth of the talent on the site. Thankfully its a fairly easy task with such quality.

I think I know who submitted some of these, some are mine, but I’m not sure on others, if your photo is below you will need to agree for their photo being used in a limited edition calender that won’t be sold for profit (I’m afraid we can’t afford to pay photographers for using their photos – though they truly deserve it, but I’m sure you appreciate the score). Credits will be given in the calendar for each photo and copyright will remain with the photographer for the photo, I will ask again to use it in any future publications. If your photo is featured below and you’d rather it wasn’t used wither let me know below or via webmaster (@) erewashvalleywildlife.org.uk and I’ll remove it from the list below (no reason needed – its your photo, you’ve every right to decide how its used!). Also if your photo is below and you don’t mind it being used please contact me to let me know its okay for it to be used and if you have a bigger version I can use for print, some are quite small.

If your photo isn’t featured please don’t be offended, I quickly skimmed submissions, I may have missed some. If you have a super shot you think could make the grade then let me know. Also if you feel a species or group isn’t represented that should be then let me know.

Finally, can people vote for 12 photos they’d like to see in the final piece. I’ll then take the images with the best votes – there may be more than 12 in all chosen as some will be needed for the front cover – maybe a college.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

To celebrate our 10,000 post (edit: well we’re nearly at 3,00 published posts but 10,000 database entities) we’ve decided to launch a new section to the website – the “Biopedia” – an encyclopedia of photos and information on some of our species across the valley area. We hope it will grow to show good places to find our regular species, photos of species you might not come across yourself – e.g. insects, and photos and information of and on rare migrants.

It will take some time to grow, but we’re sure it will be of use to people visiting the Valley, and useful information to those of us who are local and looking for information – or just somewhere to share our photos and expertise.

For more information check out the new menu page at the top menu bar.

Thanks and well done everyone on so many posts in a year and a half. When we started I don’t think anyone expected the site to grow and attract such a following and such talented contributors.