A Typical Day's Volunteering at Lower Derwent Valley NNR

Yesterday's volunteering day started off well. The sun was shining and it promised to be a warm dry day, so I went for an early morning walk along the River Derwent to the wind pump which is just over a mile away from the base at Bank Island. Lots of warblers were still singing and there was a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker in a tree on the other side of the river. The red crown of a juv showed up well in the sunlight.

Also along the river were numerous Banded Damoiselles  - males with green/blue bodies and black banded wings and something new for me - a female Banded Damoiselle which was stunning in its own way.

Male Banded Damoiselles

female Banded Damoiselle

9 volunteers started work on various tasks for the day - cutting back vegetation along the bund and in front of the hide; clearing the paths to enable easy access; gathering cut brash twigs and delivering to a local school for a project they are working on; delivering locally cut and chopped logs to raise funds for NNR projects; completing the butterfly survey as part of continuous effort monitoring and recording; finishing off pulling ragwort from the hay meadows; collecting cut wood from the meadow margins; helping with ringing 3 Common Tern chicks born on our tern rafts.

Clearing vegetation with the Allen Scythe

While clearing tall vegetation from in front of Pool Hide so visitors can have clear views of birds now and when wader migration kicks off in earnest, we came across a warbler nest. Either Reed Warbler or Sedge Warbler, but probably Sedge. Close inspection showed the nest strands had been wrapped around two of the three supporting reed stems just above a leaf junction which provided more support. Damn clever these birds!

The Common Tern chicks were very active and seemed to be climbing the walls of the tern raft to get out :)so after lunch we assembled by the pond where the raft is moored to watch and help with the ringing.

3 Common tern chicks on the tern raft

Craig had a few near misses when he waded out to collect the chicks, as the adult terns dived at him to try and drive him away from their nest.

The young terns were pretty big and will probably be flying some time next week.

It's a delicate operation to ring a small bird and requires long hours of training to get a ringing license. We are privileged to be able to assist in a small way.

All three ringed and ready to go back to their nest

Along the butterfly transect we found 6 species of butterfly as well as a 6 spot burnet moth, banded damoiselles and common blue damselflies.

Small Copper butterfly

Near the end of the transect we got a call saying that a Temminck's Stint had been seen from one of the hides. Myself and another volunteer decided that we would walk over and try and see this uncommon visitor. 10 minutes later we were able to look through the finder's scope from the hide and have good views, not only of the Temminck's Stint but also of many other waders on the same pool.

That was a brilliant end to a wonderful day which started at 07:00 when I set off from home and ended at 17:45 when I got back. A longer day than normal but well worth it 😊