Seventeen year old Logan Johnson is a member of the Shetland RSPB Youth Volunteers. To mark Volunteers' Week 2017 Logan has shared why being part of this group is so important to him and what the group do to help conservation in Shetland.
The Shetland RSPB Youth Volunteers
The Shetland RSPB Youth Volunteers was established in 2014. Aged between 14 -18, we were put together as a way to encourage the youth of Shetland to get involved in conservation and wildlife. For me it was a chance to meet people my own age who also shared similar interests and passions. Over the last few years we have done a wide range of activities from restoring natural habitats and fundraising for scientific projects to face painting and guided walks and here are some of the most notable things we have done.
Shetland is home to thousands of square metres of peatland. It is globally important in that it absorbs carbon dioxide - one of the main causes of global warming - as the CO2 keeps our Sun's heat in the atmosphere. It's also extremely important for species such as Whimbrel, Golden Plover, and Arctic Skua. Our group was invited to spend the day assisting Sue White, who works for the Shetland Amenity Trust, in her peatland restoration project near the village of Cunningsburgh. By using simple fair trade weave sacks that are filled with local peat, you place them across the peat you aim to restore and make a dam of sorts. Ideally, water builds up behind this and after that you can fling pieces of sphagnum moss from the surrounding area into the water and it will slowly but surely return back to healthy peatland as the sphagnum fills the water.
The Noss Open Day is an event always much enjoyed by the public. Our group has helped out at the National Nature Reserve for the last three years as it is opened up to the public to show them the great wealth of wildlife that is on Lerwick's doorstep, while also enjoying some fun activities. We've done a variety of tasks such as guided walks, face-painting and marine viewing where we show visitors the marine life from a small dingy. It's great to be able to show so many people the jewel that Noss is and the wonders of wildlife that so many of us are trying to save from the threat of extinction.
We've already been nominated for the Young Scot Environmental Award, which came as a big surprise for us. We may not have won the award but it was still a huge honour to be one of the finalists. Back home, we have also been nominated for and won a Shetland Environmental Award for our conservation efforts within Shetland.
After having raised several hundreds of pounds for a RSPB Storm Petrel tagging project on the island of Mousa, we were invited out to camp the night on the island and watch the birds be caught in nets for the ongoing ringing project. I've been involved in regular ringing sessions before elsewhere in Shetland but it's always a joy to see the tiny seabirds who travel hundreds and thousands of miles to Africa and back to then spend a few years around our shores before coming back to breed. On the island we also spent time clearing paths, repainting signs and clearing up litter to get the island ready for the visitor season.
The Shetland RSPB Youth Volunteers have raised money for storm petrel tagging
My personal all time favourite aspect of being a part of the 'Youth Vols' is participating in bird races to raise money for conservation projects. Many people probably haven't come across the term 'Bird Race' but what it means is that you go around for a set period of time (generally 24 hours) and count as many species of bird as possible within the allocated timeframe and/or the set location. As a team we've done two of these, one in October of 2014 where our focus was to raise money for the Storm Petrel tagging project and the second was just recently in May, where we went out from 4am to 9pm to raise money for Penguins. Both were masses of fun and, though tiring, it was thoroughly enjoyed especially when we began to run out of time since we would quickly try and cram in any bird species that we had missed.
For our most recent bird race, it was much bigger than any of us had been a part of before, with four teams spread across Shetland. Every hour was as exciting as the last as we found birds we didn't think we'd get or see till much later on. Every bush, every loch, every bit of coastline always held something of interest or a tick on our list.
The day was excellently rounded off when we had just got the Common Guillemot on RSPB Sumburgh Head at the south of Shetland. As we were driving back north, after having received a message five minutes earlier about Shetland's 6th Montagu's Harrier flying south in our direction, I just happened to look out the car windshield at the right moment to see it flying overhead! A few screams of 'stop' and we were all piling out and shouting in joy after having nabbed our 102nd species for the day (the Shetland record before that day was 104). Times like that really get your heart pounding in a bird race and makes it so much of a joy, leaving the memory always nearby when you recall the day.
Being involved with the Shetland RSPB Youth Volunteers has allowed me to find out about and be involved in a range of projects and activities that I never even knew existed. It has certainly helped fuel my passion for wildlife and conservation, providing a stepping stone to help me take my love for wildlife forward. Without groups like these, many youngsters such as myself would lose out and not be able to immerse themselves in wildlife the way they would want.
All this week we've been celebrating Volunteers' Week 2017 with a series of special blogs. Catch up on the ones so far:
Celebrating our volunteers
Foraging Fun at Loch Lomond
My volunteer experience
What is it like being a residential volunteer?
Discover more about volunteering for RSPB Scotland here.