Eagle-eyed visitors may have noticed a new face out and about on the reserve over the past few weeks. We have a new conservation intern, in the shape of Simon. Let's see what he has to say for himself...--------------------------------------------------
Hello all, I’m Simon and I am the new Conservation Intern here at Frampton Marsh for the next 6 months. As you might be seeing me around the reserve a fair bit, I thought I would give you a quick introduction and some background information.
You could say I’m a bit of a Fen boy, growing up in Cambridgeshire, currently living in Downham Market and now working here. As you might imagine I am rather used to the flat life so when I went to university in Aberystwyth (a small seaside town in Wales) my poor legs certainly felt it for the first few months. At Aberystwyth I studied Zoology which I thoroughly enjoyed after growing up always eager to learn what I could about animals especially whilst avidly watching David Attenborourgh.
I had the rather harrowing realisation last week that it has actually been a whole decade since my first day at Uni, and in that time a lot of what have learnt has unfortunately trickled out of my ears but now working with the Frampton team I am hoping to re-spark those little grey cells.
After university I went travelling for 3 months around Bali, Australia and New Zealand. Once I arrived back in Blightly I decided to volunteer at Welney Wetland Center after only a couple of weeks there I knew that this was what I wanted to do, as it combined by love of nature and getting my hands dirty. I quickly applied to go on a 9-month internship with Wildlife Trust Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire where I worked out of the Cambridge office. My time with Wildlife Trust was spent helping maintain sites, where I gained a lot of experience in woodland management.
Unfortunately, after this I had a rather long hiatus from the conservation sector as amazing as internships are, they don’t really cover the rent. But now I am a lot more set up and have a very supportive fiancée so its time to throw myself back into the fray. Originally, I was meant to be at RSPB Tichwell for 6 months of my 12-month internship, but after a week and two days lockdown was called which brought a rather abrupt stop to that. Now after nearly 6 months I can’t wait to get stuck in and for hopefully a bit longer that at Tichwell.
Hopefully I will get to meet all of you around the reserve sometime, but if not then I at least hope to get you virtually.