With the turn of the year, we welcomed our latest residential volunteer - affectionately known as 'resi-vols' - to the Dee team. Here's Jake's first impressions of the reserve he'll be calling home for the next three months. Check back for his ongoing updates through the coming weeks.
The start of a new year brings with it a plethora of new opportunities and experiences. For me this past week I have been settling in as the new residential volunteer, and I’ve had a wonderful time getting to know the team and the surrounding area.
My first day started out with an introduction to the site and the work I would be doing on the practical side of the reserve. Liz, the assistant warden, guided me around the varied nature trails, talking me through the weekly safety checks along the way. The highlight of the day was when we reached Burton Point; I was awestruck by the beauty of the view. Not being particularly local, I was oblivious to what lies beyond the modest hill across the wetland from the visitor centre, much like many of our visitors on their first outing.
View over Burton Mere Wetlands (Paul Jubb)
The almost endless expanse of reeds and saltmarsh was something I had never witnessed before; I could have spent all day birdwatching from there (and I can see myself doing just that in my spare time!). I was however pulled away by the thought of lunch. After a quick sandwich it was straight to the visitor centre, where I met up with Dan, the visitor experience manager. Dan gave me a thorough walkthrough of the opening and closing routine of the centre and I was able to meet a few of the volunteers who I’ll be working with.
Through the rest of the week I spent a full day both supporting the unseasonably busy visitor centre – thanks to a certain few bearded tits and fair weather – and out on the reserve getting my first taste of habitat management. The first major job was helping out on the wet grassland with the volunteer work party. The day before, the warden had cut down an area of reedbed and our task was to rake it up and burn it. While the job was hard work it was definitely just as rewarding to see how much we had done at the end of the day. This work serves to open up more grassland for our target nesting wading birds, whilst also improving views of the farther parts of the reserve from the visitor centre and Bunker Screen.
One of the most exciting experiences this week has been helping out our membership development officer Katie with this month’s Raptorwatch at Parkgate. The day started out opening up the visitor centre and welcoming in the morning visitors. Unfortunately the wind was howling so many of the birds had gone into hiding but that didn’t stop many of our regulars coming in to see if the wind brought with it any rarities.
As the morning rush quietened down, I went with Katie up to Parkgate to set up the events trailer. Once there I was greeted with the amazing view of the Dee Estuary and right from the start, marsh harriers where soaring across the tall grasses flushing thousands of lapwings up into the sky. Curlew, redshank and great white egrets were just some of the species seen during the event, and as the day went on and more people started to arrive we were thrilled to see hen harriers, the star attraction!
Parkgate event (D.Trotman)
Being able to watch hen harriers in the wild was a first for me and an absolute joy to witness, however as the wind grew fiercer the birds started to drop into the rushes and the thought of seeing short eared owls hunting that day started to disappear and even though we didn’t see them I was still honoured to have taken part in a wonderful event.
After this first week I feel like I’m surely going to settle in well and enjoy my time here. I want to thank everyone at the reserve who has made me feel welcome these past few days and I can’t wait to see what the rest of this placement brings.