Have you been watching Springwatch on BBC2? I have, I would have been anyway but I was on twitter duty this week and so was watching closely. I wrote recently about my recollections of Ynys-hir, the location for Springwatch, on a visit years ago – and seeing the reserve on the tele is a real reminder that I have left returning for far too long.
On Wednesday night’s show, the evening ends with Springwatch Unsprung when the presenters are joined by an invited audience – and sitting just behind Chris Packham and Kate Humble on a VIP stool was a lady whose links with Ynys-hir are long and deep. Penny Condry’s late husband was Bill Condry, doyen of Welsh wildlife, responsible for alerting the RSPB to the importance of Ynys-hir and the reserves first warden.
My colleague, Bryan Bland, has been at Ynys-hir during the week: ‘it was a surprise and a delight to meet Penny after the show – Springwatch follows in the footsteps of her husband’s popularisation of the wonderful wildlife of Wales, it was a moment when it felt like the thread of story-telling about the nature of this special place was continuing’.
Bryan grabbed this photograph of Penny talking to Kate after the show (and he’s very sorry it’s a bit fuzzy but it was getting dark)
Across the country at our Lakenheath Fen reserve I was also witnessing the changing of the guard as I joined friends and colleagues to mark the retirement of Norman Sills after 40 years. Well, I say retirement, as he said he fully intends to continue to be active in nature conservation – which is great news.
There can be few people who can retire stood in front of a visitor centre on a fantastic nature reserve that 15 years ago simply didn’t exist and know that they have created something so special. Lakenheath Fen is back and it’s largely down to Norman. Before the event I’d heard bitterns boom, seen marsh harriers over the reeds and watched rain speckle the surface of fenland pools – a magical place restored.
A few weeks ago I visited Lakenheath as we were doing some interviews to launch our new campaign, Stepping Up for Nature. I was enthusing about the size of the place to the BBC’s Tom Feilden – when Norman quietly corrected me; ‘it’s not large at all – when you consider how much of the fens has been lost’. Quite so. And he continued on that theme the other day – before Lakenheath he was at Titchwell where he oversaw the creation of 30 ha of new habitat, Lakenheath is 300 ha – and his challenge to us was to go and deliver a 3000 ha wetland (with a request that could he be the warden, please).
Norman Sills – place-maker.
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