The Lyons Den is six months old today!

Posted by Graeme Lyons , Sunday 24 October 2010 15:03

I posted three moths ago, The Lyons Den is three months old today, so I will continue to provide a three monthly update (the three month update stats are posted behind the six month stats in brackets). OK, so the total number of unique visitors has gone up quite a bit to 2565 (601) which I am pretty pleased with. There have been 7251 (2915) visits and 13430 (2915) page views. I have 56 (29) followers but it would be great to get even more! You have viewed the blog from 45 countries (25). This is the 186th post (84). Can anyone identify themselves from the back of their heads in the above photo?

The most viewed post is by far the one where the White Stork landed in front of us at the Cuckmere. This post had considerably more views than the next most viewed post by far at 340 visits. (this is what happens when Paul James puts a link to your blog on the SOS sightings page!). After this it is interestingly the label plants that gets the next most hits, then the label TV. The next most viewed post is bizarrely Strawberry Fields at 152. This was originally posted on 14th July, before I did the last update and has been a slow burner, with a steady trickle of hits. I think this is probably one person who has saved the link though as it is quite unlike the pattern of most other posts. After this we have the Raspberry Clearwing encounter, the Polecat incident and the narrowly avoided Octopus Stinkhorn induced vomiting session (I bet no one has ever written down that sentence before!). Interestingly, Listing gets in the top 10 with 98 hits. Who says people don't like listing hey?

I still don't get a lot of comments though, I get far more on Twitter and Facebook but I would love it if these could all go on the blog instead so they are all in one place! A lot of people often ask me how do I find the time. Well, I love doing it so the time is not hard to give (although there are times when Jo wishes she had never encouraged me to do it in the first place!). I am always out anyway so I don't really alter my behaviour and I do a lot of driving in my job and that is when I put the stories together. Although I write this in my own time a lot of the content is relevant to the Trust. I spend a lot of time on the 33 Sussex Wildlife Trust sites that I help to manage by providing ecological advice based on scientifically robust monitoring so it is inevitable that the majority of posts will be from Trust reserves. It's a personal blog but I avoid the difficult issues that I deal with at work because I want this to be about the wildlife. I think it is the best place to find out about some of the more unusual creatures we have on our reserves (and the wider Sussex countryside). I get a great kick out of it and it benefits the trust too, everyone's happy!

The listing element has developed since the last update and that has changed my behaviour a little. It is a great motivator to target what I go looking for in my spare time and I am definitely seeing more new things now. The benefits of this to me as a naturalist are immense and it's great to share that with other people. There is no better way to learn than teaching.

That just leaves me to say a big thank you to all the people who follow this blog! If you find anything unusual in Sussex I may be interested in covering the story if I can come and get a photo so please get in touch.

7 Response to "The Lyons Den is six months old today!"

Gilly Says:

Doesn't anyone else like your spiders?

Graeme Lyons Says:

Well, the Purse-web Spider post is at 11th place already. I find the spider posts get quite a lot of hits.

Richard Says:

Happy 6 month blog birthday, I found your blog via twitter and it is compulsive reading, especially when bored at work.
Pleased to be counted as one of your 2565 unique visitors.

Graeme Lyons Says:

Thanks for the kind words, glad you are enjoying it! I wish I had started it years ago.
Graeme

Anonymous Says:

Congradulations on 6 months of The Lyons Den nature blog.
:0€ (internet spider)

Anonymous Says:

We really enjoy reading your blog and drop in everyday to see whats new, I do hope you write a book based on your finds, we love the human element in the blog and find the information you provide is clear and easy to understand.
We also throughly enjoyed your talk at the Sussex Wildlife Trusts AGM. Do you give talks to groups? if so do you have a particular subject?

Graeme Lyons Says:

Thank you very much for the comments, the feedback is much appreciated. I do give talks to groups, mainly in a professional capacity regarding work projects but I might also do a talk one day on The Lyons Den and wildlife blogging. Feel free to email me for more details.
Cheers
Graeme

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