We are currently recruiting for a Visitor Engagement Volunteer (residential) to help us deliver the first class visitor experience that RSPB nature reserves are famous for this spring and summer. In this role, you will be instrumental in liaising with our visitors, developing and delivering a varied events programme and assisting with marketing and communications.
If you want to spend your day with people who are passionate about nature and conservation, who are excited to share their knowledge and enthusiasm with others, who love their work then Strumpshaw Fen is the place for you!
This opportunity is a 6 month placement with residential accommodation on site and will focus on developing the practical skills and experience needed to go on and apply for future visitor focused roles within the conservation sector.
We hope somebody will be able to join our team towards the end of March, the role is live on our website, for further details on how to apply click below:
https://volunteer.rspb.org.uk/opportunities/24130-residential-on-reserve-more-than-4-weeks-visitor-experience-strumpshaw-fen-2022-01-04
For further information and a personal account of what's involved please read Adrian's account of his experience in this role last year:
I was a residential volunteer at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen last year from April to December. To say I enjoyed it would be quite an understatement. I was lucky enough to have my time split between habitat management and visitor experience. Here I will relate my visitor experience …experience. To begin with I was shown the ins and outs of the reception area where we would welcome visitors to the reserve. This is usually manned by a local volunteer and I sat with them to learn the ropes. The reception volunteers were a lovely team of people and I learnt a lot from them. Here we would take entry fees for non-members, sell snacks and drinks and any family trail packs, hire out equipment such as pond dipping nets and trays, and help people to find their way around the reserve, letting them know if hides or trails were closed for any reason. I found chatting with visitors to be particularly rewarding. One of my highlights was an elderly visitor who was over the moon as he had seen his first bittern. It was so exciting to hear him relay how it had flown in front of Fen hide. Another highlight was standing at the reception view with several visitors watching an otter fishing in the broad. It was wonderful to enjoy that experience with similar minded folk. One of them asked me “Are there any bad parts to your job?” . I could think of nothing. I was eventually asked to be duty manager on occasional weekends. I would have to set up reception for the volunteer amongst other morning checks and keep in contact with them all day to make sure nothing was running out or to go check on trails.
Another very important visitor related duty I learnt early on was known as “Friday jobs”. This day involved health and safety checks around the reserve, cleaning hides, cutting back vegetation encroaching the paths, checking water levels and the reserve vehicles amongst many other things. It was left to me and other volunteers to arrange our time appropriately to get it all done and I felt a lot of responsibility to make sure I did a good job. This was a good chance to see the whole reserve and again chat to visitors on the way round, several of whom may ask if we could do their garden next when they spotted us cutting back nettles.
Every chance whilst walking the trails you might come face to face with one of these!
The visitor experience team also promote the reserve on social media, hoping to encourage more visits and letting people know what they might see. I got heavily involved in this, taking photos or recording videos of wildlife and trying to find interesting facts about wildlife or referring to special days in the year. I learnt so much while constructing these posts. Fungi friday was particularly fun and interesting and really kicked off an interest in mushrooms. Each month we would meet to discuss the social media for the month ahead and also look back on what had worked and been popular. It was always interesting to see which posts had drawn the most attention.
I got to be involved in many different visitor events such as a moth trap opening, a harrier roost watch, half-term family pond-dipping and an evening bat walk. All of these provided great opportunity to interact with the visitors and learn about the subject. It was always great to see people enjoy these events and get something out of them. I remember at the harrier roost we were sat at fen hide when two juvenile otters popped into the water for a swim. The moth trap opening also kickstarted a new interest in moths for me too.
The reserve has family trails for school holiday times and I had the pleasure several times of helping put these together. I got to draw up the activity boards, make dinosaur eggs and even put out brooms, bats and pumpkins for the halloween trail. I think my favourite sign was one asking people to sanitise their hands before flying around with a broom.
One of the most unexpected parts of my time there was to be involved in a BBC radio play. The play was recorded on the reserve each season so that the plays background sounds would be that of a real reserve. They even asked some of us to be in it and I was so excited to act with Mark Rylance and Sophie Okonedo. You never know what might come up on this “job”. The writer of the radio play also put together another play that we hosted on the reserve. The audience would follow the actors around as their stories evolved. I got to watch a final rehearsal performance and it was so rewarding to see how they used the reserve and to hear the characters talk about preserving such a place. I wished more people had got to see it.
I loved my time at Strumpshaw Fen. I learnt so much from the fantastic team of people there and I will never forget it.
If you would like any further information or an informal chat, please contact Hannah Dryland 01603 715191 or email hannah.dryland@rspb.org.uk