The WalVol( Volunteerus terrestris) is a rare animal, recognisable mainly by its cheery demeanour, industriousness and in some cases taste for real ale. They differ greatly in size, shape and age but significantly, the female is often more colourful than the male. A significant number of these creatures are increasingly active on Wallasea Island these days, and last weekend, if you were down on the seawall for a walk in the sunshine, you may have seen a small herd of WalVols wandering about enthusiastically peering at ground and sky .
The reason for this recent activity was an RSPB Volunteer induction day, which included a prize-giving ceremony and lunch for the winners of our winter Wild Writers Contest. Our four prizewinners,local girl Kate Broad of Canewdon, Charise de Becker who travelled from Colchester, Burnham yachtsman Neil Kennedy and Kenneth Seal from Chelmsford, all joined the team in a private Wallasea Wander after lunch and a very good time was had by all.( continued below the photo)
Birds, Bugs and Beasts were not only in the East that day, but on the North seawall too. The wanderers were delighted to see some of the oil beetles, celebrated here on our blog a few weeks ago, followed by an unusually relaxed common lizard who allowed us all to have a look at him before vanishing before our eyes. Charise was perturbed to be the one to spot the adder, which even posed for a photograph for identification purposes. Then to make his day, our leader, The Wallasea Birder spotted a buzzard. Mission accomplished, we called it a day.
Having had a lovely time,and without further ado, those of us not in a rush home then reconvened in a convenient watering hole to debrief and generally put the birding world to rights! This week I'd like to respond to the amazing, and very welcome, response to last week's head-banging theme - with a link for our Dido fan and apologies to Elvis O'Neill ( Elvis - your time will come! keep reading)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFRm2srRC64&feature=fvst
I've gone wild on Wallasea!