WOW!!! half a million visits!

I was pretty chuffed when the "Whales in Wales" blog passed the 50,000 mark of individual visits, but I just noticed Pembrokeshire Birds has logged over half a million to date. Five hundred and sixteen thousand,eight hundred and forty nine as I write this, to be momentarily precise. Its all about getting the message over!

Early Pembrokeshire ornithologists such as Murray Mathews helped start the ball rolling. The team of Lockley, Ingrams and Salmon followed up in 1949.
In the latter half of the C20 a new generation took up birdwatching and the hobby took off. We needed information and people to lead the way. People like David Saunders, Graham Rees and Jack Donovan with their Birds of Pembrokeshire in the 1990's, Peter Tythcot, Stewart Devonald, movers and shakers in getting out the Pembrokeshire Bird Reports and establishing the Pembrokeshire Bird Club. Many of us have followed in their wake and Graham continues to lead, with the Avifauna team and having developed and put Strumble Head in the top half dozen seawatching sites in Great Britain.

Graham Rees at Strumble: cb

Here and now in terms of letting the rest of the world know whats happening here in the wild west of Wales in the new era of Information Technology, the Pembrokeshire Birds Blog has broken new ground. It has also allowed us to contribute to a living breathing record of the more notable ornithological occurrences in our county, encouraging people to go out, discover and report them as it happens.
All it took was a bit of imagination, the willingness to embrace and explore the new technologies and put it all together and allow everyone to take part and share in it. Oh, and the ability to allow people to have their say without allowing things to descend into a slanging match.
In April 2012 the blog will celebrate its sixth anniversary and with over half a million visits it can only be termed a resounding success. There is of course nothing to tell the visitor who set the blog up. Of course it was Richard, and also he who quietly set up "Whales in Wales" and several other successful blogs as well. I would not be surprised if the half million visits milestone was passed without Richard noticing. A word of praise must also go to Richard Dobbins who helps enormously to ensure the smooth running of the blog.
As we all know, Richard is modest and self effacing and will be tempted to pull this off the blog, but those who work without looking for reward, deserve some recognition. This is well earned, leave it and take a bow Richard!!!

Rich Crossen aboard "The Cartlett Lady" : cb