Watch

Yesterday I got some exciting post I'd been looking forward to for a few weeks. My Wildlife Watch Leader Pack arrived!

Wildlife Watch is the junior branch of the Wildlife Trusts. Children of any age can join but it's normally aimed at 8 years and above. When I was younger I was a member and really enjoyed learning about wildlife at the once a month meetings. Particular highlights were seeing slow worms, pond dipping and eating home made flapjacks made by our enthusiastic leader Rupert (who I'm pleased to see on the website is still running my old group). There are now also Greenwatch groups which are aimed at older members (12+) which allow young people to work on conservation projects and surveys to gain a deeper understanding of wildlife and nature.

My Mum is a Watch Leader and I've helped out at a few meetings in the past. It was partly this experience that made me sign up to become a leader when I moved to Preston, but also because I loved being a Young Leader at Scouts and other environmental education projects I've volunteered with.

It was very easy to become a leader. I went to a meeting to check I enjoyed helping, filled in a few forms and completed a CRB check (which came back in 24 hours, a personal record!). So now, about a month later, I am officially a Wildlife Watch Leader and will be helping to run the Preston Peregrines group for two hours once a month (although I'll be doing more than two hours work for it!).

My pack arrived with a CD of the essential guide to running a Watch group, a recent copy of the Watch magazine, and a copy of LINK the magazine for leaders filled with tips and ideas for running educational and fun meetings.

I'm really looking forward to starting as a leader and I hope I can make the meetings as fun and memorable as mine were. Teaching young people about nature and wildlife is essential if future generations are to protect and understand these valuable resources properly.

Reserved

This week I've visited two nature reserves owned or managed by the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside. I've begun volunteering with the Trust's education and outreach department and so far I've been a Viking for the day and also helped with a survival day, learning how to build shelters and fires in the wild.

Both days were great fun (more about what I actually got up to later in the week) and I'm sure part of it was having the activities in such wonderful surroundings. My Viking experience was run on Booth's Plantation, near the Trust's Education Centre in Penwortham. The plantation is lovely thick woodland, well sheltered and far enough away from roads to feel like you really might have travelled back into Viking times- except for the large substation on the hill behind! Due to funding cuts (both for the Wildlife Trust and the National Grid who owns the land) this was the last event to be held at the Education Centre and Booth's Plantation. This is really sad as the Centre has been built up over 15 years with orchards, allotment plots and  beautifully painted classrooms with pictures of nature everywhere. The care and passion that has gone into producing such a wonderful asset is obvious and it must be devastating for those who work there to have to leave it all behind.

But leave it they must and move to their new reserve which will be the Trust's base at Brockholes. I haven't visited this site yet but hopefully I will soon, anywhere with a name that means "badger holes" in Old English has got to be a good place to protect wildlife!

The survival day I helped with was at Mere Sands Wood reserve which has a huge diversity of habitats from around Lancashire, including heaths, woodland, lakes and marsh. We worked in the deciduous woodland and while rain threatened all day it held off mostly. It was great to be out in the fresh air and nature and I'm looking forward to visiting the reserve again soon to have a proper look round all of the 105 acres.

With a chill in the air Autumn is a brilliant time to get out and warm up with a walk. Where's your nearest nature reserve? Why not find out this weekend and visit it, or if you already know it visit somewhere you've never been to before. That reminds me that I really need to go for my weekly walk before the weeks over!