Hello all,
As a guest blogger, I will firstly introduce myself - I am Colin Miller, one of the Central Highland Reserves interns normally based at the North Scotland Regional Office in Inverness.
I began my internship with RSPB four months ago and over that time I have had plenty of incredible experiences, such as wading around the sedge beds of Loch Ruthven in search of Slavonian grebe, or more recently I was able to see a fantastic male capercaillie poult up close while undertaking a brood count. I have now had the wonderful opportunity to join the team here at Loch Garten for five days this week in order to further my visitor experience/people engagement skills.
Although my time here is thankfully not yet over, I am taking this moment to reflect on my time here, all the great things that I have been able to experience and all the wonderful people that have supported me during my stay here.
Coming to work at Loch Garten for the first time, I needed to meet the team, learn about the set-up of the Osprey Centre itself and then catch-up on what has been a disheartening story of the residential ospreys. After my induction, I was then able to get to work! Moth Monday was quite the experience for my first day at the centre as my knowledge and general identification of moths is pretty poor. After about an hour of continuously flicking through books and repeated picking up of moths to get a better view of, I have decided that the world of moths is a foreign concept to me and one that I will look to avoid in the future, while I concentrate more on the aves and botany side of my work. Having said that, it was all good fun and it was great to see kids interested in these little creatures. The rest of my day was spent shadowing Chris, which was excellent as he could explain the inner workings of how the Osprey Centre is run.
Me and Vicky identifying moths
Tuesday was an excellent day as I was able to put into practice all that I had learned the previous day! I had a great time chatting to visitors and trying my hand at various posts around the centre providing information about the recent osprey sightings in the area, as well as pointing out the odd crested tit and great spotted woodpecker. I was even able to give my first presentation to four lovely people who were a great first audience to endure my first attempt at narrating last years footage of the Ospreys season at Loch Garten. After getting through that without any hiccups, I was able to enjoy a sparrowhawk sighting which was perched on a tree stump near the osprey nest before flying off. Nevertheless, that was not the last that we seen of the sparrowhawk, which returned after an hour or so to then take a poor siskin or chaffinch, while leaving a trail of destruction behind - including one discombobulated Chaffinch which had flown into one of our windows during the incident and had a difficult time staying upright once the sparrowhawk had left the scene.
Sparrowhawk on tree stump
Wednesday brought about a brilliant day full of sunshine in the morning, which coincided with my time on our Community Ranger Alison Greggans guided walk. Alison has fantastic knowledge about the surrounding area as well as the flora and fauna which inhabit the Strathspey area. I had great views of crested tit, treecreeper and coal tit, to name a few, while Alison spoke extensively about the Caledonian Forest and the work which RSPB are currently undertaking to restore and preserve it. In the afternoon I helped out the shop staff with the till and learned about the important role that the RSPB shops have in generating revenue to fund various aspects of the charity - It was reassuring that I still remembered all my training from previous retail work last Christmas!
As I write this today, I am vaguely unsure of what my remaining time here will entail, however I look forward to whatever it may be.
I have really enjoyed my time here and I am thankful that I was given the opportunity by Chris to do a stint here for a week! After having been welcomed in as part of the team, learning all the different aspects that it takes to get the Osprey Centre up and running, and having had some great conversations with various visitors, I am sad to see my time here finishing so soon.
I must now head back up the A9 to the Central Highland Reserves to finish up my internship, however I eagerly await the return of the Ospreys to the nest next year here at Loch Garten.
All the best,
Colin