Well here at Forsinard I've lost Anna my Information Assistant! Not lost as in she is wandering around the bog somewhere or fallen in a deep peaty pool. Stolen is probably a better word to use; again not that she has been kidnapped or abducted....maybe "head-hunted" is better....anyway...Anna has become the new Assistant Warden at RSPB Tayside Reserves and will be based down at Loch Leven, just south of Perth.
After two summers as our seasonal Information Assistant at Forsinard Flows she now has a permanent position with the reserve team in Tayside. I'm sure that many of you will have enjoyed her guided walks and 4x4 safaris or just chatting to her in the visitor centre or on the Dubh Lochan Trail. Always with a smile and a laugh, Anna really brought the Flow Country alive for many people during her time as part of the team.
We would like to take the opportunity to wish her all the very best on her new adventures and to remind you of some of the many "Anna Moments" over the last two years here are a few photographs...!
Thanks for all your hard work and the great laughs Anna!!
Taking over from Anna for the remainder of the 2015 visitor season is Kirsty Godsman.
Kirsty was our Information Assistant back in 2012 and so the peatlands of the Flow Country are well known to her. I asked Kirsty to write a bit of an update on what she has been doing since she last worked as part of the reserve team...
"I worked at Forsinard in the summer of 2012. Since finishing my stint as Information Assistant I went on to study invertebrates for my masters degree at Staffordshire University - Insects being a huge passion of mine!
I then came back to the RSPB as a trainee ecologist where I traveled Scotland via RSPB reserves (Forsinard included of course!) looking for beetles, wildflowers and sphagnum mosses. As part of this I was very lucky to get to combine two great interests of mine when I did a study of beetles of blanket bog and the effects of drain-blocking on their communities. This habitat has really caught my interest and I have made every effort to visit regularly and learn more about it.
I am very happy to be back here at Forsinard for a couple of months to share all that I have discovered since my first experiences in the flow country in 2012."