Well 6 months have been and gone and now I am here on my final day here as visitor officer Intern at Fairburn Ings! Its been a whirlwind of an adventure but just to give you a sum up of my best bits...
Firstly the amazing wildlife, having no real experience of identifying birds or wildlife before the Internship I was really excited to be able to say ‘I know what that is!’ I remember one of my first weeks here and spotting a treecreeper along the riverbank path, I’d never seen one before I came to Fairburn Ings apart from in books and I definitely had one of them ‘wow’ moments when I stood frozen to watch it. Since then I have developed a love of wildflowers, identifying trees, small mammals and I’m even starting to learn my fungi although it may take a while! I have also helped with amphibian lamping (evening walks looking for frogs) and bat detecting evenings around Fairburn to find out the ecology of the reserve which has been very exciting and have learned loads. One evening was spent moving frogs from in front of the Landover down the track whilst in the pouring rain!
Tree creeper – The Guardian
From writing press releases, blogs, newsletters, updates to twitter and facebook, doing radio interviews, interacting with reserve visitors and updating the discovery trail I have been given some wonderful opportunities throughout this Internship and learned valuable skills which I’ll keep forever. One of the things I have loved most is creating reserve interpretation including the discovery trail boards, dragonfly wind-chimes, butterfly bunting and wildflower hangings around the trail. It’s great knowing that you’re helping people learn new things everyday! I have loved walking past the butterfly bunting and hearing people say ‘oh that’s what that was!’
Brown Argus butterfly – Alan Kelly
I have also enjoyed taking part in a number of the reserves events such as the Bat walk, Big Bike ride, Storytelling sessions, Big Wild Sleepout at Lotherton Hall, Mini-beast safaris and Meet the moth sessions. The RSPB has so many wonderful ideas for events and I’ve loved being apart of them; from having my face painted at the Big Wild Sleepout to spurring people on at the Big Bike Ride its been awesome to see so many people get involved with the RSPB and spreading the word!
I have also been kept busy organising and running four family volunteering sessions at Fairburn Ings, which some of you have no doubt heard or seen photos of. We started off with a day of willow cutting up on the lagoons; we then had a day using this willow to weave a fantastic dome and tunnel in the playground. We then moved on to creating our bug village and after an extra session yesterday the willow den and bug village are now officially complete and look epic! I think the most enjoyable part for me has got to be the families and all the wonderful people who took part. It’s something they can be proud of and come back to say ‘I made that!’ I’m so glad I was apart of it.
Willow weaving 28/08/14 – Joe Seymour
Ultimately the best part of my Internship so far has been the reserve, the staff and volunteers here are just the best bunch of people and make the reserve a lovely place to work and visit! From the busy pond dipping platforms, beautiful wildflowers, amazing shop cake, friendly visitors, lovely hides, bird-full feeding platforms; Fairburn Ings is such a great reserve and I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to volunteer here. Thank you Fairburn Ings!