View From The Shed by Volunteer Shaun - WALK THE WALK

WALK THE WALK

I’ve walked the walk many times around RSPB Old Moor but more recently I’ve been tasked with a new job. I’ve been asked to talk the talk too.

I’ve done a few guided tours around the reserve, leading groups of people who want to know more about the reserve and its wildlife. We go for a wander around the place and I tell them stories which are hopefully interesting and educational.

I mostly talk about the birds that can be found at our site at various times of the year. Depending on the audience I’ll also mention dragonflies, orchids, the history of the Dearne Valley, the St Leger horse race, the Miners’ Strike, Monty Python, building plans for the area, and even the fabled sex life of the humble Dunnock! As mentioned in last week’s “Are You Local?” blog, local knowledge is key to things like this.

I try to get all my information correct - that’s incredibly important - but I’m a storyteller at heart. I’ve been a writer all my life and telling tales is in my DNA. Hopefully that makes these events a little more interesting than me just spouting facts and dates at people and watching their eyes glaze over.

But do you really need to know all of this to enjoy a trip to Old Moor or any other nature reserve? Is this knowledge an integral and necessary part of a pleasurable visitor experience? Of course not. When deciding what information I need to pass on to the customers who come to the Welcome Shed, my standard spiel goes something like this:  

“People usually come here for one of three reasons. One - they want to check out the play area for the kids; two - they’ve heard that we have some rare birds and they’ve come to see them; three - they’ve just come for a lovely walk around. Which of these are you?”

The majority of first-time visitors fall into the latter category, and it’s great to see them. Yes, the site’s primary reason for existence is to “Give Nature a Home” as it says on my old RSPB uniform, but without the paying guests we couldn’t afford to do that. We have to give them a good visitor experience and for most of them that just means a nice, calming walk “in nature”. The irony is that their experience of “nature” is in our beautiful but carefully managed version of it rather than a wild woodland or meadow. But hopefully it does its job and we’ve done ours. Hopefully everyone goes away from here feeling just a little better than they did when they arrived. That definition of “better” is a broad one though as the effects of being in nature are manyfold. It can be…

CALMING

Hopefully the cares and stresses of your day will be eased a little by spending time in a green environment. The benefits will be even greater if you can manage to go without your phone while you’re there. Just learning to relax and realise that you personally are a part of the whole ‘natural’ world can be one of our most difficult but most beneficial lessons. Just breathe…

INSPIRING

Did you enjoy it? Did it make you ‘sparkle’ just a little bit? Do you want to pass that feeling of health, renewal and excitement on to others? Maybe that means bringing your friends and family along next time. Perhaps it means improving a little bit of the natural world around you, even if that’s only a small patch of garden? If nature has done something good for you, what good can you do for nature?

EDUCATIONAL

I’m sure you will have seen some trees here and thought that they were pretty. The same with some birds. Perhaps you even noticed some impressive dragonflies and other insects. And maybe you asked someone a question, or you passed on some knowledge of your own to someone else. That’s a much better way to learn than any classroom or book. You get a sense of passion when information is spread by word of mouth. There’s an urgency and importance of losing these things that we can share so much easier face to face. Even if ‘all’ we learn is to respect the natural world and everything in it, that’s a massively important lesson and one that we can easily pass on by showing it in the way we live our lives. Crikey, I got a little evangelical there. But (sorry-not-sorry) this is important stuff. We can’t afford to lose it.

And the natural world that evokes these reactions doesn’t necessarily need to be rare or even out of the ordinary. Our recent visitors, the Spoonbills, Little Stint and the annoyingly short-stayed Red Necked Phalarope - did I mention that I was away while it was here? - are all beautiful birds and those who saw them at Old Moor were privileged to do so. But they’re swiftly here and gone. They come, they eat and use the facilities and then they’re off again to their faraway homes. They’re like those distant relatives who come to visit once a year at Christmas. We make a great fuss of these people when they arrive and it really is nice to see them for a while but it’s the ones that we come into contact with on a daily basis that make the largest impression on our lives. The family members that are always there for you, that you share breakfast yet argue with. 

I’ll let you decide for yourself which birds represent which family members in this allegory but I’m sure you get the point. Just make sure that you give your own little Robins and Sparrows an extra hug before bedtime.