Escape from reality

They say a change is as good as a rest so in June (still not getting faster at writing posts) I went for the first time on an adventure to the Peak District. Anyone who knows me will know that I am quite fond of living in the Black Country, but sometimes I need to retreat to a more rural landscape and escape the murmur of traffic that comes with living in an urban environment, as well as my monotonous routine of volunteering, endless application writing and interviews.  

First stop on route to where we were staying was Staffordshire Wildlife Trust reserve the Roaches.  I thought it might be a good start to my break because I remember watching a feature about the reserve on Midlands today a couple of years ago and was aware that peregrine falcons have been known to breed on the reserve, plus it was on my lists of places that I would like to go to but have never got round to it. It took several U-turns and recalculating satnav moments but we managed to get to the reserve, the views were spectacular, the holiday had begun. Not being familiar with the reserve we followed our feet and some signs and saw a kestrel hovering overhead. We wasn’t quite sure where the best place was on the reserve to catch a glimpse of the peregrines but as many birdwatchers will know if in doubt walk towards the crowd of people with scopes staring in the same direction, and you are bound to see something interesting even if it’s not what you was expecting to see. On this occasion I looked through a scope that had been set up by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and saw a couple of peregrine chicks in their nest, it was the first view I have ever had of peregrine chicks and would have been impossible for me to find them with my binoculars. I didn’t see the adult peregrine, countless times I have thought I have been looking at a Peregrine on a rocky ledge just to find out that I have been staring at a rock. We was limited on the amount of time that we could spend at the reserve because of needing to get to our accommodation but during our visit we managed to see a Kestrel hunting for its prey and we think we might have seen a Stonechat as well. I think I will definitely visit the reserve again it’s only a short-ish journey up the M6 and cross country from where I live and was a good retreat for a townie like me.   

The Roaches

 

Good things happen when you least expect it is something that I find myself thinking when I have seen some wildlife that I have never seen before and I haven’t got my binoculars with me or wasn’t even purposely looking out for birds etc. I was sitting having some dinner and looking out of the window of the cottage we were staying in when I saw a bird that I have never seen before. I clambered to get my binoculars and could only describe it as a mixture of a Robin and a Nuthatch (that’s what it looked like to me anyway) I thought it might have been a Redstart so I looked it up and it was. I have been to the Forest of Dean a couple of times because I know that they can be seen there but have never been lucky enough and all it took was for me to sit down, gaze out of a window and eat a veggie chilli. It is a fantastic bird with a bizarre black mask, it turned out that there was a pair of Redstarts nesting in the office on site, there was also a Great tit nesting in one of the outside buildings that made countless visits to the nest to feed its chicks.

Another bird that I have always wanted to see is a Dipper seeing this bird is another case of having to be in the right place at the right time. Fortunately luck was on my side and as I was walking along the River Dove I again saw a group of people staring in the same direction before seeing what they was looking at first. Walking towards them I saw a dot standing on a rock and then it dawned on me that they were looking at a Dipper,  my accent suddenly went even more black country than usual with excitement. I was expecting it to fly off before I had chance to have a proper look at it through my binoculars but it didn’t it stayed on the rock for quite a while. I was able to see the fine details that you can read about in the description in a bird identification book but seeing the bird in its natural habitat is completely different. It was two shades of brown with the characteristic white bib and a white eyelid, it was enough to rival seeing the Redstart and seeing a Peregrine flying around the valley where we was walking, it was definitely one of those bird watching moments that I will always remember.

Whilst in the Peak District we also went for a walk at Lathkill Dale National Nature Reserve, it was a lovely walk along a river and the weather was beautiful. Whilst walking I saw a Nuthatch, Treecreeper, a Clouded Magpie moth and Jacob’s Ladder which is a plant that is rare in the wild, whilst walking we saw a man who had purposely taken time out of his lunch break from work to take a photograph of the plant. I knew there were ‘twitchers’ in the birdwatching world but I didn’t realise there was an equivalent in the botany world. I think it is quite strange the lengths that people go to when they have a passion for something but wildlife has that effect on us doesn’t it?!

Clouded Magpie moth

 

Jacob's Ladder

I returned home from the Peak District feeling refreshed after doing some good walks and seeing some fantastic wildlife along the way, although I did have that post-holiday feeling of having to readjust back to reality. I might have been back at home but the unexpected wildlife moments continued as I spotted a Red Kite flying overhead at Sandwell Valley whilst I was watching Swallows and House Martins. A couple of days later whilst I was doing my BTO Garden Birdwatch my jaw nearly dropped into the kitchen sick when a Rose necked parakeet appeared on a cherry tree in the garden, I was drinking black coffee at the time but surely it wasn’t that strong?!. I know that there is a colony of Rose-necked parakeets at Sandwell Valley because I have seen them many times flying overhead when I’ve been volunteering at RSPB Sandwell Valley. I don’t live that far from Sandwell Valley but I never thought I would see one in my garden. My mom had never seen a Rose-necked parakeet so I thought it was good that she was able to get a close up look at the bird in her own garden, it was fascinating to watch and definitely brought a bit of colour into the garden. I also saw my first ever Yellow hammer (I think it was a Yellow hammer anyway) whilst boating along the Shropshire Union Canal, it was well worth standing on the back of the boat in the pouring rain to see it, but it would have been even better if I hadn’t have left my binoculars inside the boat. I think the morale of this blog post is to always have your binoculars with you AT ALL TIMES because you never know what wildlife you will see in both rural and urban places either way it is an escape from reality for me.

 

 

 

 

Volunteers week: Cup of tea with milk and two twigs

This week not only marks the start of a new month and summer (although it might not feel like it at the moment with the damp and windy weather, okay maybe it does feel like a normal British summer) it is also volunteers’ week. If you have ever been a volunteer yourself and/or worked with volunteers you will know that a week is not long enough to celebrate and be thankful for the contributions that volunteers make to an organisation but at least it is a way of volunteers getting the recognition that they deserve. I have done a variety of voluntary work such as volunteering at Birmingham nature centre, in a charity shop, my local biological record centre and as a hide guide but my most long-term volunteering has involved practical conservation work.

I first became a volunteer in 2009 when I was at university and joined the Birmingham University Conservation Volunteers (BUCV) it had never occurred to me beforehand to ever volunteer. I’m not the type of person to do something just to put it on my CV for me volunteering with BUCV was my opportunity to try something different, I had never done any practical conservation work before and it was a great escape from the dreaded assignments and revision that came with university life and more importantly helped to get me out of my hermit shell. One of the sites that I volunteered at with BUCV was RSPB Sandwell Valley I will always remember my first time volunteering at the reserve because the task involved helping to make a wigwam to provide a refuge for wildlife. I remember one of the RSPB volunteers asking me where I had travelled from and whether I had been to the reserve before, the reserve is only a couple of miles from where I live and I had to embarrassingly admit that I had never been to the reserve before. I always enjoyed volunteering at the RSPB reserve with BUCV because not only did I get to have a lie in on a Sunday before meeting the group, I also found that it was a tranquil place to get some fresh air and relax before being back in a lecture theatre on Monday morning.

Volunteering with BUCV at RSPB reserve

Since I enjoyed volunteering at the reserve I decided to become a volunteer with the RSPB. I started volunteering during the summer break from university. Anyone that has ever volunteered to do practical conservation work in the summer will know that one of the main tasks is removing Himalayan balsam. What is Himalayan balsam you might ask, well it is an invasive plant species because it rapidly colonises an area especially river banks, once you know what Himalayan balsam looks like you see it everywhere. I still have flashbacks to my time pulling Himalayan balsam the sound of the stems breaking, the sweet smell and if you pull it too late in the season the feeling of the seeds bursting into your face and because it grows in damp areas the 100s of mosquito bites that you acquire as a souvenir. Despite this though I continued to volunteer.  

Being a practical conservation volunteer also involves being out in all the elements the weather is only on occasions perfect goldilocks weather, not too cold or too hot, majority of the time it is at opposite ends of the meteorological spectrum, torrential rain or a sizzling heatwave. There is also the outdoorsy look that you develop such as twigs in your hair and mud on your face which you didn’t realise was there until you look in the mirror when you get home and if you are lucky you can wear stylish waders (depending on the task).

 

So you might be thinking well why do you do it then? I know I haven’t made it sound appealing with the weather and mosquitos bites but it’s the volunteer days in the pouring rain and those that have given me lovely t-shirt tans that have given me the most prominent memories of volunteering in conservation. Don’t get me wrong I do feel bonkers for doing it sometimes but in one volunteer day you get a better work out than you would in a gym and a free spa treatment as the mud mask that you end up wearing at the end of the day is free. Most importantly though it’s that feeling of making a difference to conserve wildlife and the camaraderie that develops between you and the volunteers that gives me a real buzz, not to mention the wildlife that you get to see whilst you are doing the task (sometimes it’s a nice excuse to take a breather) which is more valuable than just writing something on a piece of paper.

Peacock butterfly on a sunny volunteer day

Whilst doing my training placement with The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country I was fortunate  to be able to lead groups of volunteers doing conservation work, it was quite strange being the person doing the tools talk instead of the one having to listen to it, let’s be honest everybody loves a good tools talk don’t they?. I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with the volunteers because I was able to pass on some of the knowledge that I had gained through volunteering and my training, as well as sharing my love for wildlife. I learnt two things through being a volunteer myself and leading volunteers 1)  A tea and biscuit supply is essential, the consequences of volunteers with sharp tools and low caffeine levels are not worth thinking about 2) Never underestimate volunteers, because the work they do is brilliant!

I’ve probably been labelled a lot of stuff in my life but I will never regret being labelled a volunteer. So if you have ever considered being a volunteer then do it!

 

 

Time flies

It has been a year since I started writing my blog and although I haven’t updated the blog in a while with any recent posts my initial purpose for writing the blog hasn’t died out.

Since my last blog post I had been preoccupied training with the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country which involved carrying out practical conservation work at sites across Birmingham and the Black Country, so if you happened to see a girl frantically chucking green hay in your local greenspace last Summer then that could have been me helping to create a meadow!.

My initial aim was to blog about my experiences during my traineeship and attempt to write posts that wouldn’t bore people to death. What happened in reality was that I spent time removing hay that I had accidently thrown on myself whilst hay strewing in summer, tree felling happened in the winter and then there was the diary sheet writing (don’t ask). So by the time I sat down to write a post months had passed and I didn’t end up writing  anything - what can I say time flies when you are a budding conservationist!

Sadly my training placement came to an end in March (Do you see what I mean about taking a while to write a post) I gained a lot of skills during the year and met some wonderful people on volunteer days. I can’t look at a pine cone or pipe cleaner without having the urge to make some sort of craft item which even though I’m an adult I will still show my parents and await the proud parent moment. I think it is fair to say that I will have many lasting memories of my time with the Wildlife Trust.

I now find myself looking for my next adventure which I must admit I find a little daunting but I am trying to keep my glass half full or at least have a glass in the first place. The sound of birdsong, my first sighting of swallows, watching goldfinches (whose plumage remind me of clowns) squabble over the bird feeders and the emergence of wildflowers, are all things that are helping me through the feeling of panic and being lost as I stand at the crossroads in my life.

Spring is the season of new beginnings (blimey that sounds a bit cheesy doesn’t it?) so I thought it seems like the apt time to begin writing my blog again. As I sat in my garden writing this post a male Blackcap flew into the cherry tree not far from where I was sitting which was a very pleasant surprise then flew off again after he had seen me. Later it appeared again with another male. I had to look twice because I thought I was seeing double (I knew I shouldn’t have started drinking black coffee again). Other birds that have visited the garden recently include Starlings, Greenfinches, Great spotted woodpecker and a Goldcrest, as well as the usual suspects such as Robins and Blackbirds.  

On my afternoon walks around Swan Pool at Sandwell Valley I spotted a Great crested grebe chick sitting on one of the parents back which was lovely to see. As well as Cuckooflower and Cowslips in the grasslands and orange tip butterflies flying by. I’m trying to use these sightings as cues that I can reduce the number of layers that I wear (10+ not including the woolly hat) but I’m not entirely convinced at the moment. I have also been dusting the cobwebs off my woodland flora identification as like many other people I enjoy the sight of a carpet of bluebells in a woodland at this time of year, so a couple of weeks ago I re-visited Cuckoo’s Nook and the Dingle. Walking through the reserve I saw a pair of Goldcrest collecting nesting material, a nuthatch and Long-tailed tits as well as a variety of wildflowers including Greater Stitchwort, Wood Anemone and my favourite Wood Sorrel, woodland walks are truly amazing at this time of year.

 

Wood Sorrel

 

Greater Stitchwort

 

The last two Saturday evenings I have decided to ditch TV to enjoy the light evenings and go for a walk, on one of the evenings I went for a walk around Red House Park and just stood listening and recording the birdsong – it was amazing. On Saturday evening I went for a walk along the Tame Valley Canal it provided a different view of Birmingham and apart from the noise of traffic when walking under bridges it was relatively tranquil.

So although the weather is a bit mixed at the moment it is definitely worth getting out  and enjoying this time of year before the day length gets shorter again, I’m definitely going wild this summer are you?