HSBC Corporate Workparty

Last week we hosted the first of 5 booked corporate days arranged by HSBC as part of their Earthwatch programme. There were 17 willing participants on a particularly cold and grey day. Lee gave them a briefing about why they were on site and what we hoped to achieve during the day. The uninteresting bit over we headed to the Tardis to be kitted out with PPE (wellies & gloves). We were able to split the group into 3 for the morning work and my team were assigned the task of raking the mown grass on the meadow in front of the old visitor centre. I didn't let on that this was by far the most tedious task of the three! Undeterred, this group of office bound workers set about their job with aplomb, making short work of the top half of the meadow. Result = 4 large piles of cut grass, ideal for bugs, beetles, birds & anything else that takes a fancy to using it.

The other groups by lunchtime had moved a large heap of woodchippings to the story telling area and started to 'thin out' the hawthorn bushes behind Kingfisher Korner. Another couple of awkward jobs ticked off our 'to do list'. Excellent work so far and with the rest of the day to go!

We allowed the workers a steady 45 minutes for lunch before it was back on with the wellies and back on to the reserve to continue their good work. My group were raking again and felt very satisfied by the end of day with what they had achieved. That goes for everyone who took part in the first corporate day of the year. The help we receive during these days is invaluable and goes a long way in assisting our regular volunteers with their annual habitat management assignments.

Thank you HSBC for your continued support for the RSPB and in particular for us at Sandwell Valley.