Over 12,000 people volunteer with the RSPB, taking action to save nature across the UK. Some of these volunteers are directly involved in the recovery of our most threatened species, including Corncrake, Curlew, and Turtle Dove. For National Volunteers Week in 2023, which runs 1-7 June, we are celebrating these amazing people and hope to inspire you to get involved and act for nature. Project Officers Shannon Plummer (Northern Ireland) and Will Bevan (England) from the RSPB’s Species Volunteer Network take us through some of the incredible work happening across England and Northern Ireland.
As a nation, our wildlife needs us more than ever. Wild Isles demonstrated that we have an abundance of incredible species right on our doorstep, but the picture is not rosy for many of them. However there is hope - across the country inspirational teams of people are volunteering to bring species back from the brink.
The RSPB’s Species Volunteer Network is driving a people powered movement by supporting the teams involved in this work. Our aim is to make volunteering more accessible to more people and to establish a like-minded community across the UK dedicated to the recovery of vulnerable species.
We want to give people the chance to connect with nature, as well as chances for learning and developing new skills. The Species Volunteer Network has dedicated members of staff across Northern Ireland and England, and this allows us to support volunteers and local teams working on these essential conservation projects.
The Species Volunteer Network in Northern Ireland Shannon explains more about the Species Volunteer Network in Northern Ireland, which has only been running since autumn 2022.
I joined the project last year and despite only being recently established, it has been great to see how the Species Volunteer Network is already helping two important species projects – Red Kites and Corncrakes. Read on to learn more about them: Northern Ireland Red Kite Project The Northern Ireland Red Kite Project became the first project in Northern Ireland to join the Species Volunteer Network.
Red Kites became extinct in Ireland more than 200 years ago. But in 2008, 27 Red Kites were released in County Down and a further 26 Red Kites were relocated from Wales where the population had naturally recovered. Since then, the birds have begun to breed once more in Northern Ireland.
Red Kite and chicks on a nest. Volunteers in Northern Ireland have been trained in preparation for wing tagging this year’s chicks. © Chris Gomersall (rspb-images.com).
Volunteers have been helping with the continued recovery of the species, for example during the winter of 2022-2023, the new Volunteer Coordinator (volunteers who support and develop the project and the volunteering team) organised two winter roost watches as part of an annual roost count, helping identify how many individual Red Kites there were. The successful counts recorded over 60 individual Red Kites.
There’s more too - at the beginning of the 2023 breeding season, volunteers attended a training event with the Northern Ireland Raptor Study Group in preparation for wing tagging this year’s chicks. They will be monitoring individual nests throughout the breeding season.
Volunteers have had a close connection with this project since the initial reintroduction, with one of our volunteers even travelling to Wales to help transport the birds. It has been incredible to see their hard work and dedication paying off to help this species and track its recovery in Northern Ireland.
Giving Corncrake a Home In 1997, the last official record for Corncrake in Northern Ireland was on Rathlin Island. Hard work and patience by way of habitat creation has been rewarded with the return of the Corncrake on Rathlin in 2014.
Traditionally in Northern Ireland, Corncrakes are found in hay meadows. On Rathlin Island we’re helping to provide early cover (tall, dense vegetation that springs up early in the year) so that when they arrive back from migration they have suitable places to hide, while meadows are still short. Plants such as Cow Parsley, Yellow Flag Iris and Stinging Nettles provide this shelter. On Rathlin, nettles were identified as the ideal plant for early cover as they can be easily sourced off island and the rhizomes transported for planting
Volunteers dig up nettle rhizomes to transplant to Rathlin Island, creating safe habitat for Corncrakes which returned the island in 2014. © Graham Goodall (rspb-images.com). From early October to mid-February, nettle rhizomes are harvested on the mainland. Areas where the rhizomes can be easily dug are identified and permission sought from the landowners. Our groups of volunteers then dig up the rhizomes and wash them to be stored in bulk bags ready for collection. These rhizomes are then laid down along the edge of field boundaries and develop into nettle corridors providing safe habitat for the Corncrakes. In 2021 five males were heard calling on the Island. To build on this success we must continue to create large areas of Corncrake cover on Rathlin Island to attract greater numbers to breed. Winter 2022-2023 was a first for our Volunteer Coordinator organising the ‘Give Corncrake a Home’ project. We were really pleased to see a range of volunteers coming forward, some had helped on the project before while others were new to volunteering completely. We had teens, retirees, corporate groups, some RSPB staff and even a student wildlife filmmaker. We had a great first season with 34 volunteers attending over six days with 11 bulk bags of rhizomes collected – that’s a lot of nettles! Digging for rhizomes, in fact digging at any time of the year but especially in the winter can be a challenge for anyone, but this fact seemed to be missed by our volunteers who had great enthusiasm for the task at hand!
It is great to see these projects developing and exciting to be part of this important work.
Giving Corncrake a Home Volunteers on a thank you event to Rathlin Island. © Anne Guichard/RSPB.
The Species Volunteer Network in England The Species Volunteer Network also operates in England – Will has been meeting some of the teams working to support species conservation:
Curlew LIFE – Geltsdale and Hadrian’s Wall Since 2021 the Curlews in Crisis project has been running across five sites in the UK, with the site in England situated around RSPB Geltsdale and Hadrian’s Wall. Across this landscape, which supports 220 pairs of Curlew, a dedicated team of volunteers is doing vital monitoring work which will drive future action for their conservation.
The Curlew LIFE project in Northern England takes place across a stunning landscape. © Will Bevan/RSPB.
In February, I travelled up for a volunteer training session which included an informative poo ID quiz (for identifying predators) and learning how to assess the suitability of habitat for breeding Curlews. This was followed later by an outdoor practical, using newly developed apps on tablets to assist with these surveys. We tested the new technology, pondering over the desirability of the fields from the perspective of a breeding Curlew, and the shape and structure of various droppings, an excited cheer going up when some was found as the group rushed over to take pictures and identify what creature might have left it. The enthusiasm of the volunteers is infectious, and I always leave these site visits with a warm feeling.
A volunteer training session for the Geltsdale and Hadrian’s Wall Curlew LIFE team. © Jaki Bell/RSPB.
In another session the volunteers learnt how to survey Curlew territories, which will help them to get an idea of nesting success over the season. This work is very involved and requires them to build relationships with the local farmers across their survey area, who will manage their land with Curlews in mind. Other Species Volunteer Network supported projects working with Stone-curlew and Turtle Dove also require volunteers to develop close relationships with farmers. Collaboration like this is essential for landscape-scale conservation work. Hopefully for Curlews this work forms part of the beginning of their road to recovery.
Little Terns – East Norfolk & North Suffolk/Chesil Beach In mid-April I was sitting in a village hall on the Norfolk coast around the glow of a projector screen as pictures of cute Little Tern and Ringed Plover chicks appeared on the slides. The hall was cosy compared with the bleak weather we had just come in from, and another thirty people shared the room with me. They are the volunteers working on the Beach-nesting Bird project in east Norfolk and north Suffolk. The crowd was a mixture of old and new, with some of the group having been on the project for over 10 years, possessing invaluable knowledge and skills. All are dedicated to protecting these vulnerable species for another breeding season, and excitement about the Little Terns returning from West Africa was building.
Beach-nesting birds need all the help they can get, with Little Terns steadily declining since the 1980s, and Ringed Plovers now on the UK Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern. Teams of volunteers help to provide protection from predators, egg thieves, and disturbance from beachgoers and their dogs. They are out every week of the breeding season, from May to August, informing the public and watching over the birds. They also monitor to find out how protection measures are working.
A week earlier a similar event was taking place for volunteers working on the Chesil Beach Little Tern Recovery Project. Reports of a Little Tern sighting had hopes up, and the team were guessing when the first birds would begin to arrive. With 50 mph winds the next day and waves lashing over the ridge of Chesil Beach, that tern may have wished it had stayed south a bit longer.
Despite the weather we were shown the site where the volunteers will spend their shifts, as well as the pots which volunteers use to create sand patches for the Little Terns to nest on. With Chesil Beach being made of large shingle, using sand patches means the eggs will not get as cold and are more likely to hatch. While many of the terns choose to nest on these patches, ones that don’t can be transplanted onto to them by the volunteers (under licence). This is a technique that has proved very successful and needs an experienced team of volunteers to carry out.
These pre-season events are important for team building and lifting morale before the hectic breeding season, setting them up for the busy months ahead when both teams undertake the arduous task of erecting fencing on the beaches, and pull out all the stops to give the Little Terns their best shot at raising a new generation of young.
Volunteers in East Norfolk on a busy day putting up fencing in May. The fencing is put up for the protection of nesting Little Terns and Ringed Plovers. © Jon White.
How to get involvedIf you are feeling inspired and would like to get involved in species recovery projects or any other volunteering roles, please go to the RSPB Volunteering Opportunities page. If you can’t find the sort of volunteering role you’re looking for from our listed opportunities, please do get in touch so we can help you find the right role for you! You can contact us directly at SpeciesVolunteerNetwork@rspb.org.uk.
The Curlews in crisis project is managed by the RSPB with generous support from the EU LIFE programme and the following project partners; Cairngorms Connect, Fellfoot Forward Landscape Partnership Scheme, Natural Resources Wales and NIEA-DAERA.
The east Norfolk and north Suffolk Beach-nesting Bird Project is funded by Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Natural England, and the RSPB. It is also supported by the North Norfolk District Council, East Suffolk Councils and the Environment Agency.
The Chesil Beach Little Tern Recovery Project is a partnership project managed by the RSPB, supported by Dorset Wildlife Trust, Natural England, The Portland Court Leet, the Crown Estate and the Chesil Bank and Fleet Nature Reserve.
Continue reading• Marvelling at migratory birds – our work on an avian superhighway • Saving species and habitats in the UK and further afield in 2022
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