I started thinking about volunteering after graduating from uni last year. Having done some volunteering before I knew it would be a great way of gaining the experience I needed to help me find a job. I had worked in a busy visitor centre for the past five years so was keen to gain some practical reserve experience particularly in monitoring and surveying. I also knew it would be a great way to find out about potential employers.
By luck, I stumbled across ProjectScotland online, a national charity that matches up 18-30 year olds with an organisation within their interests and arranges a full-time volunteer placement for three months minimum. Through them, I started a placement with the RSPB North Scotland Regional Office in Inverness and now volunteer for four days a week as a reserves and office assistant. I spend one day out on the Central Highland Reserves (Nigg, Udale, Culbin Sands and Loch Ruthven) and another alternating between Corrimony and Insh Marshes Reserves. This involves habitat maintenance tasks such as removing invasive tree species, fence construction, putting up new signs etc and surveying tasks including mink raft monitoring and bird surveys including Crossbills and Crested Tits at Corrimony and the Wetland bird surveys (WeBS) at Udale. I am office based for two days too which involve data entering and assisting the office admin team with general tasks as well as a project involving the sorting of species data for a local RSPB project.
As my three month placement drew to an end and I was yet to be lucky with the job hunt, I decided to accept the RSPBs kind offer to extend my stay for an extra month. It allowed me to continue volunteering while job searching and considering options such as residential volunteering. However as survey season had now begun some of the reserves were quite busy so I found myself with some days to fill. Having visited all the main reserves managed by our office, I was keen to visit some of the other reserves within the Highland region , so when Claire Foot the Forsinard Assistant Warden kindly invited me to come up and visit the reserve for a few days I said ‘yes please!’.
So the following Monday I arrived at 11am in Forsinard for a two night stay, to the smallest train station I’ve ever seen, which I later discovered was the reserve visitor centre too. It was very sunny and peaceful and unlike Inverness, surprisingly there was no snow here but the scenery was stunning.
Forsinard visitor centre in the old station building
Everyone was very welcoming and I was given an introductory talk and a map of the site to keep. My first task involved walking most of the Forsinain Trail with Claire and Paul Turner (Warden) to put up their new way-marker signs. This was really enjoyable (especially after the four hour train journey!) as it gave me the chance to see the reserve which was very interesting and also get to know Claire and Paul who were both very nice. Later on I went with David Jarrett (a residential volunteer) do a farm field bird survey - unfortunately we only saw one curlew, however given the cool temperature this wasn’t too surprising.
Me with the new waymarker disks on the Forsinain Trail
We had planned to do a raptor survey on day two but this was cancelled due to snow that fell overnight, so instead David and I went to finish putting up the Forsinain way-marker signs. Although there were not many birds around, we did see plenty of Song Thrushes, Pied Wagtails, a Meadow Pipit and three Teal.
On my third and final day I went with Paul to help at a Bird and Seal watching event at Loch Fleet. We were there alongside Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) to answer people’s questions, and the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) and one of the SNH staff members set up a seal viewing event nearby so we supported each other’s events. It was a family friendly event with telescopes and binoculars available for viewing and refreshments offered. I had been to Loch Fleet before but not to an event so was really looking forward to it and praying that the Ospreys would be there! We were in luck the pair were home and even posed on their nest for us! I was glad that I was able to identify some of the waders and therefore able to help answer some questions. I found that I also enjoyed chatting to people and realised that I really missed working with the public and would definitely like to continue it but within a wildlife conservation context.
Osprey Watching at Loch Fleet (Photo: Andrew MacLeod SNH)
I was sorry it was my last day in Forsinard but I have really enjoyed it! It was great to meet everyone here and seeing and working on the site has been really interesting too. It has given me a taster of residential volunteering as well as the chance to improve my bird watching and identification skills. I definitely hope to volunteer in Forsinard Flows again – perhaps on a residential placement next time!
I have been lucky enough through my placement to visit all of the main reserves managed by our office and having heard so much about Forsinard Flows, I am really glad that I can now add it to my list too. Since leaving Forsinard I have spent an exciting night and day Osprey-watching at Loch Garten (and will soon be returning to volunteer in their visitor centre for a day), and have been on a really enjoyable Black Grouse Safari at Corrimony! I am now looking forward to my first residential volunteering placement at Insh Marshes for a week!