PROFILE FEATURE
Ajay Tegala - Conservation Champion That the Deepings Lakes is the jewel in the crown of the Deeping St James is undisputed and so it is of no surprise that the Deepings Prince of Conservation should have spent many of his formative boyhood years exploring and gaining inspiration from the area. As a teenager Ajay Tegala became a volunteer at the Lakes under Dave Vandome’s careful instruction; it was he who taught Ajay to identify every tree and it was Brian and Norah Littler who instilled the love of wildflowers which in turn led to the topic for Ajay’s dissertation while at Nottingham Trent University. This involved bringing green hay from nearby Thurlby Fen to Deeping Lakes to spread wildflower seed, which worked well and made the Lakes an even more attractive spot for wildlife. During his Environmental Conservation course at the University, Ajay took a volunteering placement with the National Trust in Norfolk and on graduation became a seasonal Ranger based at Blakeney Point living in the old lifeboat house. While at Blakeney, among other activities, Ajay worked with seabirds, in particular with terns, charting their breeding behaviour and contributing to a national monitoring programme. Of course he was also fascinated by the Grey Seal population at Blakeney Point and during his time there the breeding population reached the dizzy heights of 2,000 for the first time. This reached the ears of Countryfile and Springwatch and led to Ajay’s first television appearances!
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One of his roles at Blakeney was to work with children and he embraced this task with enthusiasm – keen to engage the conservationists of the future! It was a magical moment when leading a group around the reserve showing them the shingle where the Oystercatchers lay their eggs that a chick actually hatched out in front of their eyes! It is his easy manner and joie de vivre which is infectious and it is this which captures the imagination of his young charges. Enduringly beautiful it may be but isolated and remote Blakeney most certainly was and so when the opportunity came to move to Wicken Fen he jumped at the chance and is now involved in the management of this ancient landscape. With an ambitious programme to extend the Fen and to curtail the intensive farming of the area there are plans to rewet the area. To facilitate this 100 Konik horses and 50 Highland cattle graze the land. It is Ajay as Ranger who is responsible for the welfare of the stock, which are resilient breeds but require regular welfare checks. Bats are a particular passion of Ajay’s, having taken bat walks in his Deeping days and furthering his interest by conducting Bat Walks for young people in Norfolk. Taking a bat detector out on a walk with young people is a great way to inspire the naturalists of the future. It was of no surprise then that he was asked to present the BBC 2 documentary Inside the Bat Cave with Lucy Cooke of Springwatch and bat expert Professor Kate Jones. He spent four months filming in a
rare Greater Horseshoe Bat maternity roost in the grounds of a Dorset private school managed by the Vincent Wildlife Trust. ‘Seeing these bats emerge from their roosts at dusk was such a magical experience,’ he remembers, ‘watching dozens of them fly over our heads.’ Filming also took place over the border in Scotland at Linlithgow Castle near Edinburgh, the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots, where he joined an all-female local bat group monitoring the castle ruins. ‘My role in the documentary is presenting the citizen science angle – how anyone can get involved with their local bat group and looking at new bat recording technology being developed. Recording bats in a spooky castle in the early hours of the morning is something I will never forget,’ reminisces Ajay. Studying Biology, Geography and Art at A Level at the Deepings School, Ajay was initially interested in studying Art at uni but his passion for the environment, cultivated under the watchful eye of Geography teacher Mrs Blades, saw his career develop in a different way. He recalls one of the most amazing sights in his time at Blakeney on a misty day when the annual migration of song thrushes, redwings, blackbirds and fieldfares came out of the sky – exhausted, disorientated by the sea mist, hungry and thirsty – and a robin landed in a fellow Ranger’s pocket. A decision worth taking!
