On Sunday 23 March three fantastic families joined us for a day of volunteering. This was part of a pilot scheme to encourage families to get closer to nature, learn new skills and make a genuine contribution to nature conservation through volunteering with the RSPB.
We planned a day with a number of tasks including willow weaving a screen for our secret family hide in the meadow, sowing some wildflower seeds and gathering materials for and constructing a reptile habitat pile.
Building a reptile habitat pile.
Learning to weave willow.
Planting in the meadow
We were also joined by RSPB photographer Eleanor Bentall and by Natalie Mason from LandLove magazine who came along to report on the day.
I hope all the families had a great albeit exhausting day (I certainly did) and you can already see the fruits of their labour on a visit to our wildflower meadow. We’re already seeing a nice array of flowers and these in turn are attracting a delightful array of butterflies.
From July we‘ll be starting a monthly family volunteering day running for a six month period. We’ll be undertaking a variety of tasks including wildlife surveys and practical conservation tasks designed with 5 to 14 year olds (and their parents/ grandparents) in mind. The volunteering days will be on the second Saturday of each month, starting on July 12th.
Some families may want to come along every month, others may want to come along for a taster day. If you are interested in finding out more or giving it a try please get in touch with me (Anna) via our email pulborough.brooks@rspb.org.uk