We're always striving to write more blogs to keep our visitors and online followers up to date with reserve developments and inspire you to visit, so we're delighted that one of our wonderful volunteers, Paula, has decided to start writing for us. Here, she writes an introduction to herself and explains the slightly different view of the reserve and its wildlife that she'll provide.
Hello everyone!
My name is Paula and I will be your budding resident blogger for the Dee Estuary reserve. I currently volunteer as a Centre Assistant at Burton Mere Wetlands and am often misrepresented as "that loud one that never stops talking". I'd like to take this moment to dismiss that terrible rumour. Just kidding. I am quite loud.
But let's not focus on that.
A little bit of background information about myself: (skip these two paragraphs if you're bored already!) I've been volunteering now in the Reception Hide for approximately two years. I had visited Burton Mere with my (then) boyfriend back in summer 2014. I recall I was approached by a friendly member of staff, who had informed me that I couldn't pay by card for a day visit, but that I would be able to join! Being impulsive, I just joined there and then, before even actually setting foot out on the reserve! Needless to say, I enjoyed it so much that I soon after enquired about volunteering. Also, the boyfriend didn't last. I just know you were wondering that.
To be honest, I wasn't much into birding when I first started. I just enjoyed being at the reserve, in a fantastic landscape surrounded by rich and varied wildlife - I didn't even know what a coot was. Although I had once taken up birding as a child with my father, my broken bird knowledge was mostly with the small songbirds that anyone might see in the garden. This general apathy carried on for about a year, until I slowly started to develop an interest and I found myself actually going to different places to seek out new birds.
My reasons for wanting to take up blogging on here are twofold: I really enjoy reading blogs and I'd love to see more people taking up blogging, and secondly I feel that there are so many people who come through the doors at Burton Mere Wetlands who are beginners to birding, just like me. They don't know their godwits from their redshanks but man, do they want to learn? To those with enthusiasm but a general lack of knowledge; I get you. I'm here for you.
Come learn with me.
I typically volunteer every other Sunday and this week I had a little wander around the reserve. As I'm not the best at bird identification, I often find I learn best from others and try and absorb as much information as I can. Today I had the great fortune to wander around with a great birder, who is also pretty darn good with identifying bird song too. (His name is Jonathan, should you ever wish to harass him with birding questions!)
Hard to miss were the four spoonbills which seem to be really enjoying the amenities at chez Burton Mere; hopefully they will grace us with their presence for a while longer yet. They can still often be found feeding and preening on the scrape in front of the Reception Hide.
Around the old fishery ponds, there were some very lazy juvenile moorhens having a bit of a lie down by the water's edge. They're always great to watch with their huge clumsy feet. A sedge warbler sang its heart out somewhere within the reedbed. (Note to all newbies: to me, a sedge warbler often sounds as though it's been holding its song inside for as long as it can and it just has to let it out.) It's a very frantic and sudden burst of song. We also saw common whitethroat, a greater-spotted woodpecker and heard (but didn't see) a very noisy green woodpecker.
In the all too infrequent warmer spells there's been some great butterflies seen around the reserve too; I tried to get a picture of an admiral but alas, it decided it didn't wish to pose for me. I hope that in the upcoming weeks as we move through summer, I will be able to update you all on which weird and wonderful insects I have discovered - as well as the added suspense of whether I ever manage to learn what they are! In the meantime, don't just wait to hear what I've seen; get yourself down to Burton Mere Wetlands, or the wider Dee Estuary reserve, and have a wander this summer. You won't regret it!
Until next time... Paula
Hi Paula. Enjoyed reading your blog, and looking forward to the next instalment. Hugh