A new year and an exciting new volunteer group had its first meeting at Minsmere. Minsmere’s Young Warden’s group is aimed at young people with an enthusiasm for wildlife and the environment. The sessions will consist of lots of practical, hands-on activities, opportunities for young people to increase their skills in conservation management and wildlife knowledge and make new like minded friends.
This guest blog is written by one of new Young Wardens, Lucy, as she describes her experience of her first meeting.
Saturday 17 January
Today I started a new club. It was called Young Wardens. I was scared to start with but when I arrived everyone was so lovely and friendly I felt fine. I learned lots about the reserve and helped do some conservation. We started off by doing some games to help learn everyone’s names. Next we went and helped build up the brash around the North Bushes. We did this because birds are soon going to nest there so we needed to stop people going through and disturbing them nesting.
We learned the brash was made out of the twigs of silver birches. We also helped build up the existing fence to help to stop people stepping over and disturbing the birds.
We next had a break and had Hot Chocolate! After that we made doughnuts. These were made out of the brash for nightingales. We did this because nightingales nest in enclosed round spaces. Last year there weren’t any nightingale nests on this part of the reserve so it will be nice to see if they work. I enjoyed doing all of it and liked it because it was something I had never done before.
We next went to Wildlife Lookout to do some bird watching. There I learned lots about the scrape and reed cutting. I learned things like the left of the scrape is salt water and the right is fresh water and they are building a fence around to stop animals getting in and eating the birds and their eggs. Also I saw the reed cutter and learned how reeds grow and how they stop it spreading. I also learned what they do with the reeds when they are cut.
Overall I really enjoyed today and learned lots of really interesting things. It is nice to think I have done something to help.
Looks like you've done a good job, Lucy. It's great to know that there are young people like you who care about our birds and wildlife and are prepared to put time and effort into their protection. Keep up the good work!
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.