Catharine Jarvis
This time last year, as part of the interview process for a place on the conservation traineeship, I was asked to write a blog about what I thought the traineeship would give me. I called my blog ‘From Egg to Fledgling’ and I wrote how...
“I can’t wait to see and learn more about the different species on the reserves ... and become more confident and knowledgeable in their identification”.
Noble chafer beetle by Catharine Jarvis
I’ve kept a tally of the species I’ve seen over the past 12 months and it is now into three figures. Some have been entirely new species to me, such as this noble chafer beetle we spotted recently on a head of hogweed in one of the Trust’s orchards.
The other special species that I’ve been delighted to work with has been the dormouse. I couldn’t have been luckier to find that my manager, Andy Bucklitch, is a dormouse expert and that within two weeks of starting my traineeship, I’d have the privilege of working with him and his fellow dormouse handlers from across the country. We tramped up and down steep slopes in Ribbesford Wood, with me pushing my way through bracken and getting whipped on the legs and face by errant brambles. It was at that point I realised how fit they were and how unfit I was. But it was so worth the effort.
Repairing dormouse boxes by Catharine Jarvis
The work associated with dormice isn’t all cute and furry, as my fellow trainees Patrick and Charlie will testify. In April we had a session in Monkwood to repair, clean an re-erect dormice nest boxes. We didn’t see a dormouse but we still did the work, safe in the knowledge that due to our efforts that day, in couple of months we probably would.
Carolyn holding the dormouse box bung by Carolyn Franklin
When inspecting dormouse nest boxes, the rules are that you go into the wood with one bung to place in the nest box hole...and you must leave with a bung. Me being a dopey Dinah, on my second dormouse survey in Ribbesford Wood I left my bung in the back of a nest box and only realised when I’d walked downhill and then uphill to the next box. I had to do the walk of shame back to the previous nest box to collect it, as captured here by Carolyn. Thankfully, my schoolgirl error was quickly forgiven and I’ve just commenced training to become a licenced dormouse handler.
In last year's interview blog, I explained that I’d been office-based for over 30 years whilst trying my best to let nature into my life by gaining an ornithology qualification and being a member and volunteering with various organisations including Worcestershire Wildlife Trust. I wrote...
“Nature has given me so much over the years and has helped me through some challenging times. There can be no doubt that due to a multitude of factors nature, now more than ever, needs our help. It’s time for me to give something back by doing what I really want to do.”
In my mind, I just wanted to give myself the best opportunity to recover from a difficult five years and to be kind to myself. It was the prospect of having the opportunity to spend a year on a structured programme, refreshing my knowledge whilst gaining essential practical skills, that really excited me. I wrote that...
“Adverts for reserve assistants always ask for practical experience, which this traineeship will give me. I’ve done some DIY but the training I’ll get with the Trust will take my practical skills to another level. I’m hoping that by the end of my training I’ll be confident in the safe use of power tools. I’ll be able to repair a fence and lay a hedge. I’ll learn how to safely operate in aquatic habitats and open up waterways. All benefiting wildlife by making vital habitat corridors. I’ll also be able to undertake surveys and contribute to research.”
I don’t think I’d really appreciated how hard the manual work would be but I got stuck in from day one and still do, every day.
Passed the chainsaw assessment
The trials and tribulations of getting to grips with a petrol chainsaw reminded me of the pop song Together in Electric Dreams as I attempted to start the petrol chainsaw about 35 times before having to admit defeat and use an electric one that I named “Flash Harry”. My determination to master both the chainsaw and tree felling paid off as I passed my assessment in May, along with my fellow trainee Carolyn, and I’m now able to crosscut and fell small trees. My hopes of learning all the practical skills associated with reserve management were fulfilled. I’ve worked in all weathers but still with a smile on my face.
I've learnt about the importance of hedgerows, acting as vital wildlife corridors for species such as dormice, and I learnt how to plant a hedgerow at Dropping Well Farm, near Bewdley.
Working in aquatic habitats was another challenge but one that the whole team rose to in February, reducing the amount of bulrushes (Typha) in the Monkwood pond to improve the habitat for breeding great crested newt. The trainee team returned to the pond in the middle of July and we were delighted to see juvenile great crested newts swimming about, just below the surface in the sunnier, clearer sections of the pond. It made all our efforts that freezing day in February so worth getting wet and cold for.
In early January a team of us went looking for harvest mouse nests in the fields at Lower Smite Farm. This was something I’d never previously had the opportunity of doing. However, I soon got my eye in and managed to spot seven tennis ball-sized nests over the course of an hour. I’m looking forward to future surveys.
Fixing a bridge by Carolyn Franklin
I knew this was the right job for me after I’d spent a challenging day working underneath the bridge on the Trust's Ipsley Alders Marsh nature reserve, making it more safe and stable. I called in to see my mother on the way home from work, caked in mud. She looked me up and down, sighed and then with a twinkle in her eye said “Oh, Catharine, you must have absolutely loved it today!”
The traineeship has given my mother a new lease of life too as she can’t wait to hear what we’ve been up to. I sometimes take her for a picnic at the reserves and she’s got to know Tiddesley Wood, Monkwood and The Knapp and Papermill to name but a few.
The final paragraph in my blog read as follows...
“I see myself as a chick in an egg, living in a safe, sheltered environment but now trying to break out of my shell. With this traineeship I’ll be helped along my journey by professionals who I can learn so much from. I’ll be nurtured and skilled up by the Trust for a year, before having the confidence to fledge into the world of conservation and fend for myself, gaining a role where I can help to make a difference to wildlife and people in my local area. That will be my greatest achievement.”
I believe that the traineeship has given me a new me. My friends, family and ex-work colleagues have commented how I've changed since starting the traineeship; I'm now always smiling and I'm a little more outgoing. I put this down to the fact that I’m working in an area I’ve dreamed about working in for over 30 years.
The effort that Andy has made to train me and the other trainees can’t be underestimated and I thank him for that. I have always felt completely safe and supported in everything I’ve been tasked to do (especially his patience with me when I really struggled on a slope during a chainsaw practice session the day before my felling assessment). I’ve enjoyed working as a team with Carolyn and, between us, assisting Andy to show the two new trainees, Charlie and Patrick, the ropes. We’ve also been given more responsibility, leading the work parties and carrying out tasks by ourselves.
Conservation trainees surveying a meadow by Charlie Harland
I’ve enjoyed working with all my colleagues at the Trust and getting to know the roving volunteers on the work parties around the county. I’ve been on walks and talks with the Wyre Forest Local Group members, who have been really supportive of me in my role as a Conservation Trainee. I’ve had the opportunity to meet the trustees, all of whom have encouraged me enormously during my traineeship. I’ve enjoyed working in the reserves team and learnt a lot about reserve management from them. Most recently, Jasmine, our Wildlife and Farming Advisor, has taught me so much about botany and my field identification skills have improved.
That’s not quite the end of it. In May, I was successful in being appointed Assistant Consultancy Ecologist with Worcestershire Wildlife Consultancy for three days per week. I started my new role on June 1st 2023, just nine months after commencing my traineeship. I’m enjoying finding out what’s involved in undertaking dawn and dusk bat surveys and have carried out a few Preliminary Ecological Appraisals to check sites for protected species such as badger, bat, bird, dormouse, otter, reptile and white-clawed crayfish. I’ve even just commenced a slow-worm translocation project; this involves visiting an area of land earmarked for development and placing mats for slow-worms to take refuge under. We move any slow-worms under these mats to a protected hibernaculum in the local area and monitor the site on a weekly basis until no more slow-worms are found. I have a feeling that exciting times are ahead.
Catharine after passing her chainsaw certificate by Catharine Jarvis
I decided to also continue with my Conservation Traineeship until it ends in September. I’m sure that after reading our blogs you can see why I didn’t want to leave the traineeship early, especially with such a great team.
If you're reading this blog and are interested in the traineeship, I’d say “go for it” and I’d encourage you to get in touch with Andy Bucklitch or Rob Allen to discuss future opportunities. It will give you more than you could ever envisage. You never know, this time next year it could be you writing this blog!
