Quantock Hills Blog
The Great Escape
- Tim and the Volunteers head off to Slimbridge
Posted by Tim Russell on 13 September 2011
Last Thursday a minibus load of Quantock Conservation Volunteers (armed with binos and sarnies) headed north to Gloucestershire to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust HQ at Slimbridge.
These volunteers carry out weekly conservation tasks throughout the year on behalf of the AONB Service and National Trust and this visit (although being very educational) was also a ‘thank you’ for all their hard work.
We were met on site by Sarah Aspden, who gave us all an informative background to the history of Slimbridge from the early Peter Scott days up to some of the present day work and projects. I must say the site has improved a little from my undergraduate days when I did some studies in animal behaviour whilst at Oxford Polytechnic (a long time ago!). The site is far more user friendly and a pleasure to explore.
Much of the work at Slimbridge, and indeed our talks were all delivered by volunteers, it was a very useful opportunity for us to meet other volunteers in the conservation field and to see some of the valuable work that they do.
I know that birds are ‘the thing’ really at Slimbridge and the Great Crane reintroduction project (in partnership with RSPB on the Somerset Levels) is amazing, but I have to say it was the otters that stole the day for me! Ooh yeah … and the company of course.
Tim Russell
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