The Volunteer Spotlight...
So, introduce yourself... Who are you and what did you do before Rainham!
I am Jim Archer and I am retired now but I used to work for a drug company and later at the Royal London Hospital as an immunologist – first attempting to improve people’s chances after transplants and then, looking at the same molecules, trying to understand arthritis. As a teenager in Edinburgh, I was interested in insects, especially butterflies and moths; but they took second place to immunology for many years.
My good self glued to my microscope looking at....
Spirogyra!
How long have you been a volunteer, what do you do in your role and what drew you to help the RSPB here?
My wife Vicky introduced me to Rainham Marshes when she was volunteering to make the boardwalks we all now use. Before the reserve opened I was taken to an open day, booked myself in for a ‘walk’ and was delighted to be given a tour of the reserve’s spiders rather than the ducks I had expected. On another such day I was encouraged to try pond-dipping with my grandson – an exciting occasion when I saw many different creatures I had previously only read about.
My first volunteering was when Katy Smith, an enthusiastic young assistant warden, decided she wanted to learn about the local moths. I had recently bought myself a moth trap so we used to come in during the evenings to see what turned up at the Woodland Discovery Zone. We sorted our catch in the little Meetings Room in the main centre so other people were able to see what we were doing. Some moths were spectacular but even the LBJs are beautiful when you look at them closely, although they can be difficult to identify.
Mothing in 2010
A glorious Emperor Moth - (HTV)
The tiny Epiblema foenella (HTV)
And the amazing Twenty Plume with it filimentous wings! (HTV)
When the Marshland Discovery Zone was opened, a request went out for people to man it. I signed up, as it seemed time to make my volunteering more regular and I could came in on the same day that my wife’s work party was maintaining the board walks. I was surprised to discover that I was running pond-dipping in an architectural gem carefully designed for children. I had very busy days during the school holidays; but they were good fun. When there were fewer children about, I brought in a microscope and identification guides to try to improve my own abilities and to add new species to the reserve lists. Since the Kingfishers turfed us out of the MDZ during the breeding season, this has had to happen more frequently in other parts of the reserve and occasionally, when I don’t feel like lugging a library long distances, or parts are closed, I try other things like using pheromone lures to look for moths that have the good sense not to be attracted by light. Of course I still help with moth nights and I’m hopeful we shall be able to increase our moth surveys.
and this turns into...
this lovely Alder Fly
What is the best bird that you have seen on the reserve and what is your all time favourite from anywhere in the world?
I don’t really do birds – I spend most of my time looking down! However, my oddest experience of them was arriving to see that a new picket fence had suddenly formed beside the landfill site. It turned out that a Slaty-backed Gull had taken a wrong turning from Japan and hundreds of birders had come out to see it – sadly for them it had gone AWOL!
mmm... a gull... The Slaty Back - (Priscille Dunerin)
the Fence...
My favourite bird abroad is probably the Galah, a small pink and grey cockatoo, seen best at sunset as little flocks call up and down the dry creeks of the deserts of South Australia. Occasionally they visit Adelaide, where I worked for four years, and you can see them strutting in the parklands beside the River Torrens. Adelaide Zoo has a fine collection, most of which have lived with people who either died or decided to return to the UK. They seek out company, climbing around the wires with their feet and beaks and offering cups of tea in the politest of English accents.
Galahs
What is your most memorable wildlife encounter out on the marsh?
Everything is remarkable: you never know what is going to appear round a corner or come up in a net. Probably the strangest, because I was in a completely new field and the creatures are so different from anything I already knew, have been when we ran microscope days. I remember sitting entranced with two other volunteers for nearly an hour watching colonies of a protozoan called Vorticella, which looks like a bell on the end of a spring, as the images of them rising and falling on a stem of starwort were played on the tea-room screen. On another day we found beautiful circular colonies of the protozoan Synura. Even poor Andrew was dragged out of his office to admire them.
Synura - they are really tiny
Why would you recommend that people visit the reserve and volunteer if they have the time?
I enjoy talking to people, especially children, about things they don’t expect. The wonderful thing about the reserve is how much knowledge is there to be tapped. I admit that I laugh at twitchers; but the reason they have anything to look for is that there are so many superb birders checking the reserve all the time. If I’m puzzled by a strange tweet or a little brown bird, there is always someone to tell me what it is. Likewise if I want to know about a snail, a fly, a bee or a dragonfly, or go looking for a strange aphid, I know where find someone to ask. It’s good company.
And I like the problems the place sets.
A man that looks on glass,
O it may stay his eye,
Or if it pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heavens espy.
George Herbert (1593-1632)
Jim Archer 4th May 2017