Guest Blogs

This post is provided by Annie Marston, a natural animal healer from Derbyshire who runs her own fantastic blog that is well worth a read: http://www.naturalhealingforanimals.co.uk/.  Thank you annie!



THE AVIAN OUTRIDER

This is a true story, told to me by the man who befriended a very particular bird. 

A few years ago, he was part of a group of people who got together and started a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation sanctuary. One of their patients was a young male kestrel, brought in with a broken wing.

The bird was only six months old and responded well to his care, so much so that the wing healed and over time he regained full flying power. Although encouraged to fly freely, the kestrel didn't want to leave the sanctuary permanently. 

Instead the kestrel started to fly alongside his rescuer's car, as he drove to work each day. The first part of the journey to work was through country lanes and the bird would fly at a short distance away from, but within sight of the car until they reached the outskirts of the town, a little over a mile away. Here the kestrel would fly up into a clump of trees, outside the Bank. The man driving on to work. On his return, as he passed the Bank, out from the trees would fly the kestrel and escort him and his car home again, for tea. This practice continued for several months until, one day the kestrel, now an adult male, vanished. 

He reappeared after a suitable interval, with his own offspring. He did this, just calling by to introduce his new families to the human who had cared for him, for several more years. 

I think this kestrel showed remarkable levels of intelligence, gratitude and awareness. There was no benefit to him from escorting the car, nor in returning with his own chicks, but that is what he did. Above and beyond his survival instincts, this bird displayed what we used to think of as a human level of sensitivity.

Time and again in my life and work with animals, I have met animals who have defied the stereotypical ideas we had of them, thereby opening our minds to how we can learn from them.

Many thanks to Paul Turner for the following post. 

An insight into conservation

I met Molly nearly two years ago when she came to volunteer with us at the RSPB Forsinard Flows reserve. She has kindly asked me to write an entry for her blog, so here is my take on living and working in the wild.

My name is Paul Turner and I am lost in the wild. I should explain that this is completely through my own choice and is more of an immersion in nature than an aimless wandering (although there is nothing wrong with that either!).

 

Forsinard 

For the last two years I have worked as a warden on the largest RSPB nature reserve at Forsinard Flows in the counties of Caithness & Sutherland (up in the very north of Scotland). As well as carrying out surveys and monitoring the various plant and animal species on the reserve I am also responsible for visitors, education and engaging with our local communities.

I didn’t become a warden straight out of school; in fact my journey to Forsinard is a bit of a ramble and involves a whole host of adventures. I originally graduated from the University of Paisley with a BSc in Business Information Technology & Multimedia before working as an IT Training Officer for five years. Despite studying the dark arts of working with computers my real enjoyment came from the outdoors and I soon found myself volunteering for the RSPB and the Forestry Commission at the Aberfoyle Osprey Watch. Soon I discovered that I loved talking to members of the public about our osprey and the wildlife in the forest. So much so, that I eventually decided that I wanted to work in the conservation sector. This didn’t happen over night. In fact it took a couple of years of volunteering for different charities and organizations and a return to further education to study Countryside Management before I got my first paid contract.

Iceland 

My journey to Forsinard seems to have been a progressive one in which I have worked in wilder and wilder habitats (and slowly migrated further north!). I have gone from surveying red squirrels in the Trossachs to inspiring people about Ospreys in the Cairngorms, then further north still on my first visit to Forsinard as a volunteer before spending 5 months on a private nature reserve in Iceland and then back to settle in Forsinard again.

Working (and volunteering) in conservation has allowed me to take part in a whole host of adventures and I have met some interesting and wonderful people, many of whom I count as good friends. The decision to change careers was the best one I have ever made. Sometimes the work is tough and the weather is tougher, but when you work in the wild you can always find something that makes you smile.

It is not a place however for those who lack patience or those who lack a respect for the wild.  Wild places are often vast, remote and dynamic to the point that they can be incredibly dangerous if underestimated. In the same way, working in conservation is not for people who want an easy life.  Our hours can be long and unsociable, the work hard (dirty, smelly, repetitive, boring, interesting, tiring/etc.).   I know many people who express a life-long desire to “work with animals” or “work in the outdoors” who would not be able to stick it out. However for those who have the passion, desire and perseverance to stick at it they will find a calling (not a career or a job) that they will love (most of the time)!

I have had the pleasure and the privilege to see black and red-throated divers on remote pool systems, hen harriers hunting small birds and harlequin ducks shooting the rapids on turbulent Icelandic rivers. I have seen pine martens at close quarters, watched adders basking in the sun and seen wader chicks in their first couple of days of life. “The wild” is an amazing place and for those who take the time and effort to learn about it and to truly experience it you will always come away with memories and stories that you will treasure forever.