It's not just the birds that fly in to Wallasea's Wild Coast from afar - we have an increasing number of international visitors coming to hear about our exciting project and see the site of Europe's largest conservation project of its kind.
This week we were lucky enough to be included in a Leonardo da Vinci Partnership interchange, thanks to our friends The National Trust. A group of very knowledgable conservationists, from projects and conservation organisations in France, Germany, the Netherlands and here in the UK, travelled here to discuss the implementation of coastline and invasive species management policies. After presentations from Chris the project manager, and myself ,the sun came out and they spent the rest of the day on tour, both on land and sea, around the island. The day was completed with some fascinating presentations from the visitors about their own areas of work, accompanied by some very welcome tea and cake - many thanks to Kerry of the Creeksea Ferry Inn for helping us out the whole day with the catering and general hospitality.
However, this was not a one off for the Wild Coast project. Only a couple of weeks ago, we welcomed two very far-travelled individuals from Indonesia. The RSPB's international department has been involved for many years in an immense project in what is now known as the Harapan Rainforest (check out our main web pages for details). Bambang Irianto and his lovely wife are at a similar stage of the development of their project and visited several RSPB reserves around the UK to gain an insight and some inspiration for the way forward, going home with brains bulging with ideas, I'm told. I must confess to feeling a little silly showing them our wonderful LBJ farm birds , as they are bound to be more used to much more colourful and exciting birds!
So now we have friends in Europe, the Far East and last but not least Canada. For the third year running we welcomed a group of geography students from a university in St Johns,Newfoundland. Dressed for wetter and colder conditions than we usually experience in this the driest part of England, they explored and interrogated the unfamiliar landscape to their hearts' content and promised to keep coming back as the project develops in the coming years.
It has been an honour to meet such a variety of individuals, and a delight to tell them all about this amazing place. If you haven't been here to see for yourself, my tour guide hat is rarely on the hook these days, so get in touch,come on over and bring your friends. It may be a bit of a hackneyed phrase in the RSPB but " some days I love my job - and others I REALLY love it!"
I've gone wild on Wallasea!