Well....after 20 years of being employed as a professional ecologist in some form or other, I have now successfully negotiated my way through two whole weeks as a self employed ecologist.  .....and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.  I have set up my own company, built a small but growing website, huckleecology.com, successfully undertaken my first piece of commissioned work as an independent ecological consultant (more about this will follow on a future post!).

One of the key things that I have been reflecting on in the past few weeks is the whole concept of digital marketing and using social media (such as this) to advertise my new start up business.  As part of that process it has occurred to me that it is tempting to focus on making a big deal about the ecological knowledge and experience that I have developed over the years.

However, one of the key reasons about why I am so passionate about wildlife and enjoy being an ecologist is not so much about what I do know (which is important admittedly!), but it is the sheer quantity of stuff that I do not know and that ecology is constantly never failing to amaze and fascinate me in equal measure.  Take the mathematical patterns that re-appear again and again in the plant world, such as the fibonacci series in the plant to the right for example.

The ability to stimulate the mind and acquire new knowledge and skills seems to me to be a key requirement of a fulfilling career - for me ecology provides that spark and will I hope continue to do so for years to come.

If you are still reading this, many thanks for showing good stamina and putting up with some of my musing.  If you would like to find out more about what I do know then please feel free to get in touch via my contact page, or leave a comment below!

This is the first blog and is really designed as a test to see if the whole concept works...

I expect it will be deleted in due course in place of something more worthwhile, but it should do the job while I see how things go.