I'd booked myself onto a one day training course today, all to do with freshwater invertebrates, habitats, maintenance and surveying. I heard about this through work, but I gave up paid work to take the day off and attend this as it was a day of free training and I'd thought it would not only be really interesting but also useful for work too, e.g. for any river studies school sessions I might deliver now that I'm available for Wildlife Trust sessional work in term time as well as school holidays.
Sadly, I didn't find the day very useful. It's not that the training was bad, but it was more focused on freshwater invertebrate identification and how to pond dip or kick sample in a river. I'm already pretty familiar with all those things so personally, I found this course a notch below my level really. I'd hoped it was going to be a more in depth look at invert identification (i.e. separating the different mayfly species or different beetles) plus a lot more on the habitat / management side but those aspects were only covered very briefly.
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| a stone loach |
The training was around 60 miles away, so I had an 11 hour day, leaving home at 7:15am 😱 for the 1 hour 45 minute journey there and then it took me two and a half hours to get home so I didn't get back until 6:30pm! Honestly, it felt like a wasted 11 hours. I did learn a couple of things, but not nearly as much as I'd gone along expecting to learn. I could have just learned those things myself with an hour or two researching at home. But you have to try things and it's not every day free training days come along. It was interesting to visit somewhere new and I can easily find a few positives from the day ...
A pleasant drive through the fog this morning
A crisp autumn day with mist lingering until lunchtime and then sunshine this afternoon
Realising that my freshwater invert knowledge is actually rather good (as it should be really with all the pond dipping I've led over the last few years!)
Realising that my freshwater invert knowledge is actually rather good (as it should be really with all the pond dipping I've led over the last few years!)
I saw a beautiful sunset on my journey home as well as some fabulous autumn colour
When I was nearly home and thoroughly fed up of driving (a 125 mile round trip today!) I ended up taking a detour and travelling through a couple of little villages I'd never even heard of with some nice looking hills I've never walked that are actually quite close to home - new areas to walk discovered and noted for another day.
Oh and for an added bonus, I'll add that my lunch was delicious too (eaten indoors though unfortunately) but that was one tasty sandwich I made myself! (If you're interested it was houmous, carrot and pea shoots on a very nice ancient grain bread) ... simple pleasures 😂
What a shame you didn't get more out of the course, it was a long day! At least you had some nice moments on the journey home :)
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has given courses it is sometimes difficult to satisfy everyone since there will nearly always be disparate levels of knowledge and expectations. Quite different, for example, from dealing with first year undergraduate students where their course outline tells you exactly what you need to cover.
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