Volunteer News

VolunteerNews

The latest news and highlights for the Volunteers of Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust

In each issue we will feature a 'Spotlight' on one of our volunteers. In this issue, our spotlight is on Jeff Davies, one of our Habitat Volunteers.

Fulfilling a dream I had throughout my working career, I started volunteering with LRWT at Rutland Water Nature Reserve when I retired in 2015 I've always had a passion for wildlife and my time in horticulture helped nurture that interest, especially in ecology and biodiversity.

I've since become part of the regular habitat teams, committed to the Osprey Monitoring Volunteering Group and regularly help staff undertake surveys, such as the wetland and breeding wader surveys and have assisted in many other projects

Leading public nature walks around the reserve and giving photographic presentations to the volunteers about my travels also gives me great pleasure. I've loved learning and soaking up all the information the staff can give me as this in turn provides me with the knowledge to help showcase the reserve to members of the public.

I've made many friends and more than anything else thoroughly enjoyed giving over 400 hours a year to such a lovely place. I never tire of hearing comments like 'What a lovely place" and "I didn't know that"

Rainbow NationRainbow Nature

Our volunteer, Jeff Davies, delivered a fascinating and informative talk to our volunteers on Friday 17th February called 'Rainbow Nation - Rainbow Nature' about his recent travels to South Africa and included a mass of information and some stunning wildlife photography.

Lyndon Book Club

On the 1st Wednesday of every month at 10.30 am our Book Club meet at Lyndon Visitor Centre.

The group meet for a social catchup and to talk about the latest book challenge which is based on a particular wildlife theme.

The meeting is free of charge, but there is a charge for hot drinks/cake. The Book Club is open to anyone so please contact lbrady@lrwt.org.uk if you are interested in joining the group.

Community Art Meet: By Lead Volunteer, Pete Gillatt

I spent my working life working in aircraft engineering, I served with the RAF for 23 years then joined the MOD working for the RAF as a civilian employed on military aircraft design projects. At the age of 60, I reduced my working days to four days per week, this gave me an additional day of leisure, so I started volunteering at the Rutland Water Nature Reserve working on the Habitat Management Team. I spent 10 years working out on the reserve then moved into the Visitor Centres where I have now worked for 5 years.

I have always been interested in art and working on the reserve hones your appreciation of colours, textures, and designs produced by nature At the age of 70, I attended a local art exhibition and was persuaded to join their group. At this stage, I had never drawn or painted anything other than a house wall, ceiling, or a fence post on the reserve. This group gave me the confidence to have a go and I now enjoy my painting and wish I had started earlier in life.

There will be fellow volunteers who, like me, don’t perhaps have the confidence to start drawing or painting on their own so a group environment may help you as it helped me. There will be others that already enjoy their art and would like to do more in a group.

The Lagoon Room at the Volunteer Training Centre has a panoramic window overlooking Lagoon 4 on the reserve. It is a perfect facility for meeting up and sketching or painting or indeed any other form of art It will be a social event as well as an art event and I am looking forward to seeing volunteers with similar interests.

Community Art Meet is the last Friday of every month at the VTC from 10am until midday with an option for a lunch gathering and a wildlife walk too. The first meeting is Friday 28th April 2023. This is free of charge for all LRWT volunteers. Contact hfairhead@lrwt org uk to reserve your place

Peter Gillatt painting at his home

Flight of the Osprey

On the 13th of March, we welcomed back our amazing team of Osprey Information Volunteers to Lyndon Visitor Centre.

This was a great opportunity for not only the team to meet up again and have a catch up, but also to update them on any developments and changes

George Smith, Information Officer at Lyndon Visitor Centre, gave an excellent overview prior to the start of the new Osprey season

Farewell to Luke Nelson

We said a fond farewell to our Assistant Species & Recording Officer, Luke Nelson in the New Year.

Luke has now moved to work at Sheffield University studying Long Tailed Tits. During his time here, Luke contributed enormously to the work involved in both monitoring and recording the wildlife at RWNR, particularly the ringing

He was instrumental in managing the Sand Martin nest recording, the ringing of Sand Martin chicks and the Constant Effort Site (a long-term ringing study) Luke enjoyed his time with us so much that he has now joined as a volunteer!

Inspiring Young People

Our Species and Recording Officer Tim Sexton, hosted students from Nottingham Trent University on Tuesday 14th March, to interact and educate them about the world of aquatic invertebrates with a study day in taxonomy and identification.

Tim said, “this is a great opportunity for students to learn first hand about the subject of aquatic invertebrates in relation to water quality”.

Legacy Wood

By Matthew Heaver

Many of you will know of the Osprey nest viewpoint from Waderscrape Hide on our Lyndon nature reserve at Rutland Water, but have you given a second thought to the strip of woodland you walk past on the way into the hide? Thanks to a generous legacy donation, we are attempting to improve the woodland for wildlife as at present it is dominated by Alder and Silver Birch with virtually no understory to speak of which isn’t very useful for nesting birds.

With this brief in mind; myself, colleagues and volunteers descended onto the woodland in early February to begin work. The first priority was to thin out the Alder on the shoreline section of the wood but what to do with all the logs and cuttings?

We decided to get creative with log piles and build a variety of shapes and sizes including this one that is designed to replicate a decaying, hollow log. Much of the brash was placed in a dead hedge running the length of the woodland by our hard-working volunteers. I was also able to get creative with my chainsaw and attempt some ring-barking for the first time. The idea of this is to cut into the tree all the way around the trunk which will eventually kill the tree and provide standing deadwood which is excellent habitat for a range of species

I am looking forward to returning to the woodland in early Spring with our volunteers for part 2 which will be to improve species diversity by planting a variety of tree and shrub species such as Willow and Guelder Rose.

Hopefully, we’ll choose a nice sunny day when the Ospreys are back in the adjacent Manton Bay!

I have enjoyed my first 8 months at Rutland Water and getting to know and work with all the volunteers. We couldn’t do all the amazing work we do without you all!

Photos of work completed at Legacy Wood

Scallops and Path Widening

By Fran Payne - Reserve Officer Grasslands

From cutting areas in the reed bed to woodland coppicing and thinning, hedge laying, sheep foot trimming, cattle TB tests, osprey nest maintenance, tawny owl, barn owl and kestrel box building you say it we ’ ve done it this winter! Winter is always full on for the habitat management team as this is when we can get into all areas of the reserve and do the heavy habitat management work.

One area that kept me busy for a couple of weeks was path widening along the paths to Fieldfare and Harrier hides at Egleton and Tufted duck hide at Lyndon.

This management serves two purposes really. Firstly, it reduces the vegetation from encroaching into the path during the growing season, but more important for wildlife, this path widening or scalloping provides more ‘edge’ or ‘boundary habitat’.

This change in structure at the boundary of two or more habitats instantly allows for greater biodiversity. The scallops that we created are south facing so in the early spring months they will be perfect sun traps for warmth seeking insects.

We also built dead hedges and log piles for added interest within the habitat for small mammals and birds as well as invertebrate life and fungi. The injection of light and warmth on the ground in the spring will hopefully encourage flowering plant species too, which will provide a food source for bee and butterfly species. Pinch points along the path were maintained so that the wider path does not prevent species using the scrub to move through the landscape from safely crossing.

Thank you for all your hard work everyone, but especially the habitat management volunteers…..you’ve got loads done this winter!

Beetles Top the Charts at Rutland Water

By Tim Sexton - Species & Recording Officer

Through just eight surveys over the last year, an incredible 610 species of beetle have been recorded at Rutland Water Nature Reserve. This brings the total number of beetle species found to 776 and makes them the most abundant group of organisms identified on the site to date.

The surveys were carried out by a team of three volunteers (Steve Lane, Graham Finch and Anona Finch) along with Tim Sexton, the Species and Recording Officer at Rutland Water The ‘Fab Four’ as they became affectionately known, set out to build a baseline of beetle records for the Reserve and identify important assemblages of beetles which have become established in the years since the Reservoir was created.

Visit LRWT.ORG.UK/NEWS to read the full article

A Big Thank You!

By Sarah Bedford - Conservation Officer

When I took on the new role of Conservation Officer in September of 2022, I was immediately a little overwhelmed with the scope, breadth and quantity of work I had just signed up for. Thankfully, a fabulous group of volunteers (who’ve stayed on despite a changing of the guard), some charismatic sheep and a team of really wonderful colleagues have helped me through my first five months, and I have actually started to enjoy myself!

So I want to say a massive thank you, to all of you who have given me advice, listened to my questions, innovated and problemsolved when necessary, checked on sheep, dragged brash, made me a brew, stayed working with me until the street lights came on and showed up week after week to endlessly pop out scrub across the two counties. I value and appreciate your time and support enormously and can’t wait to see what the summer will bring.

Photos of artificial Badger Sett

What's been happening at Rutland Water

By Joe Davis Rutland Water Nature Reserve Manager and Acting Head of Nature Reserves.

It’s been a hectic but productive few months on the Reserves

I have been Managing Rutland Water but have also been acting as Head of Nature Reserves.

This has meant a big to-do list, so a big thank you goes out to all of our dedicated staff and volunteers for all their hard work and diligence.

The Reserves team have been busy on all of the sites that we manage, we did however manage to have a well deserved team day at Launde Park Wood We all worked on tree safety for the day and had a winter BBQ for lunch.

There is a massive breadth of work going on across our reserves from beetle surveys to coppicing woodland to moving bird hides Pictured here are a few pictures from Rutland Water showing some examples of our recent work

Let’s hope we have a wildlife-filled summer with the sound of birdsong and insects in the air, spring is highly anticipated and just around the corner!

"Overall, I am really looking forward to spring springing!"

The Latest News from Lyndon Visitor Centre

By Laura BradyLyndon Centre Co-ordinator

Here at Lyndon Visitor Centre we are incredibly excited to be welcoming back both volunteers and visitors 7 days a week as we enter the start of Osprey season!

Over the winter we have been open during the weekends and it’s been

For the first time, we have held beginner nature walks with Paul Bennet, a long-standing volunteer for the Trust. These have been very well received, and it’s been great to offer something for the complete beginner, we are always trying to make the nature reserve as inclusive as we can.

We would also like to give a huge thank you to the Osprey Winter Work Party who have been volunteering over the winter getting the nature reserve at Lyndon ready for another season, and a special thank you to Sian who often supplied some very nice home-made soup!

We have also had some very busy sold-out events over the winter, with both Terry and Jeff’s bird walks at AWBC always having rave reviews, and the bird ringing events, for both adults and families with Gary and Candice are so incredible to see!

A huge thank you to all the volunteers who often help at these ringing events. We hope to see lots of you soon at Lyndon.

Make sure you keep an eye on the Osprey webcam! We hope to see more Osprey chicks for the upcoming season!

Midweek Volunteer Sessions

By Kathryn Goddard - Trainee Reserve Officer

Trainee Reserves Officer Kathryn Goddard, gives a recap on the first quarter of our midweek volunteer sessions.

Tuesday

We had a rare occurrence with the Tuesday team of actually planting trees rather than removing them!

Thanks to The Green Place in Sileby we were able to plant just over 1,200 Hawthorne, Blackthorne, and Crab Apple Tree Whips at Cossington Meadows This will help to create a screen blocking the public footpath for future nesting birds on the scrapes.

We’ve also been removing an old perimeter stock fence from Mill Wood and Platt’s Close at Cossington allowing various mammals to access and leave the reserve freely. The fence had been there since it was turned into a reserve from landfill and in some sections had been overcome by bramble But no one or maybe no bramble was going to stop the team from ripping it out! I’m learning that the volunteers can be very determined when they get going!

David D triumphantly emerged from the woodland after lunch with the biggest Scarlet Elf Cap I’ve ever seen!

Sunday

Sundays have seen us at Ulverscro Reserve, carrying on the work from Wednesday team of de-scrubbing

Even though this was quite an ard the team absolutely smashed it an quickly the piles of bramble and g disappear.

Sectors 10 and 14 have continued t felled returning the field back to i grass and heather land

Our Sunday volunteers have been dedicated to the tasks in hand and the majority of the working days i square area pulling out every sing and gorse shoot.

"It’s amazing how quickly volunteers can clear an area armed with only a few tools!"

We're Bringing Back Nature!

By Fee Worton

We are in the midst of launching Nextdoor Nature here at LRWT. Helen Fairhead has been appointed Project Lead and Fee Worton Community Organiser.

Nextdoor Nature is bringing communities together to help nature flourish where we live and work! Thanks to £5million funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Nextdoor Nature will provide people with the advice and support they need to help nature on their doorstep and leave a lasting natural legacy to mark The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

"The project aims to connect with communities underrepresented in the conversations around nature’s recovery"

We will use a community organising approach to empower people to take actions that matter to them. We will listen to and support communities, explore barriers to inclusion, and power dynamics, and support the progress of project ideas of their own. We will link partners to co-create microprojects that inspire others to take action where they live and work. This is a national project with each Trust working in a similar way with their local communities.

Over the past few weeks, our project has been in development, paving a way forward to reaching out to communities across the City of Leicester. A staff awareness event was held at Rutland Water on the 3rd of February to offer a greater understanding of the project. We had a guest appearance from Autumn Barlow, Comms and Press Officer, Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and colleagues from Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust joined us via Zoom link to share some of their Nextdoor Nature work that is underway.

With existing links and connections across the staff cohort, inroads are being made however we need your help!

Update from our Volunteer Coordinator

By Helen Fairhead

Hello to all of our amazing volunteers, we hope you have enjoyed this new version of a combined newsletter and have found the content both informative and useful.

We always welcome feedback, so please do let me know if there is anything you would like to read about in future issues. Please email: hfairhead@lrwt.org.uk

We are currently working on the volunteer handbook which will include new policies and procedures to help improve your experience with us. We will have further details on this including information about our annual volunteer survey and much more in future issues.

My areas of responsibility are quite diverse covering areas such as VTC events, managing VTC bookings, corporate days and team meetings, public courses, volunteer events, volunteer management, Volunteer Training Centre (operations) and leading on our new grassroots project, Nextdoor Nature, in Leicester

My main role will always be to support you, our dedicated and passionate team of volunteers at Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust.

So please do get in touch with any questions or concerns you may have throughout your volunteer journey. We really do want you to have the best time with us. email: hfairhead@lrwt.org.uk or call 07539 201204.

A huge and sincere thank you to all of you for the hard work you continue to do each and every year to support the Trust.

We hope you all have a lovely Spring, filled with nature, birdsong, wildflowers, and more!

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Do you have any photos or stories you want to share?

Our volunteers are integral to the work we do here at Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, and we are thankful to each and every one of you for giving your time to protect and preserve nature That's why we want to hear from you!

Let us know your highlights, your stories, and everything in between, get in contact with Jordan at jlinthwaite@lrwt.org.uk to find out more