A guest blog from Bev, a RSPB community engagement officer who joined the Tuesday work party for the day.
I am not going to lie, the alarm sounding at 6.50am on a chilly, autumnal Tuesday morning did not fill me with enthusiasm. After hitting the snooze button one too many times, I forced myself to leave my warm, safe bed, grab a flask of coffee and start the misty journey from Bristol to Beckley in Oxfordshire. For those of you, like me, that are not too familiar with the quaint Oxfordshire area, Beckley is a village about 4.5 miles northeast of the centre of Oxford. However, there is one very magical aspect to Beckley. It is home to RSPB Otmoor, an RSPB nature reserve of wet meadows and reed beds. Otmoor was my destination for the day, and my purpose, to spend the day with the delightful, funny and entertaining Tuesday work party.
Even though I work for the RSPB as a community engagement officer and have spent many years volunteering for an array of conservation organisations in engagement roles, rehabilitation roles and even as a Eurasian crane mummy, walking the chicks around pre-release enclosures in Somerset, I have very little experience of habitat management. The more time I spent on nature reserves, the more I realised I had no clue about what is needed to manage these areas, not just for the bird species but for the rarest of amphibians, reptiles and insects. I also felt that I wanted to give something back. The privilege I feel when walking around a reserve, peacefully waiting in a hide for a wildlife delight to catch my eye, the sound of turtle doves purring or bitterns booming in nearby reed beds are moments I treasure. So this was my chance.
On arriving at the reserve I was distracted by the glorious sight of a red kite (Milvus milvus), looking stunning with its chestnut red and white wings, a perfect site for a beautiful autumn morning. After nearly missing the parking area due to this distraction, I finally park up my van and am warmly met by members of the work party. After introductions and offerings of coffee (much appreciated), I am swept away in the four by four to another area of the reserve to help clear chopped wood and make a bon fire. The reason for chopping and clearing the wood is due to tree incursion occurring. This growth, if not managed can outcompete other important habitats, such as scrub, which support a range of wildlife. Scrub provides nectar, seeds, fruits, shelter and nest sites for invertebrates, birds and mammals, as well as offering suitable habitat for many flowering plants. Making and monitoring the fire was good fun and something I hadn’t done for years. It was also good to learn a bit more about managing fires and how to control them in order to create minimal damage to the surrounding environment.
After a well-earned break, which yep you guessed it, involved more coffee, we met up with the rest of the work party. After lunch we started on the afternoon’s activity. This involved further clearance of wood, predominately willow that had been chopped the previous week. Again, the willow needed to be burned, but before this could happen, it was to be congregated into one place for the burning to take place the following week. This was a big job and quite physical, but good fun and certainly for me a more interesting way to get fit than going to the gym. As the afternoon went on and the work came to a finish, we gathered our bags and tools and headed back to our cars.
To reflect, I really enjoyed the day and met some brilliant people of all ages and experiences. The thing I enjoyed the most wasn’t necessarily the manual work, but the ad hoc information you gain, little facts and knowledge that you pick up along the way and of course there are always the site of red kites (Milvus milvus), buzzards (Buteo buteo), grey herons (Ardea cinerea), little egrets (Egretta garzetta) and spinning dragonflies to bring a little smile to your face.
Grey heron (Terry Sherlock)