In August our volunteer sessions went back into full swing, and I delivered 5 sessions at 3 of our sites in Falkirk! I did a joint session with RSPB at Skinflats Nature Reserve which is situated on the banks of the River Forth. This is a lovely site with areas of intertidal mudflats and saltmarsh. The Come Forth for Wildlife project have created 2 ponds here and for my volunteer session I helped the volunteers to create a hibernaculum near one of the ponds for any amphibians and reptiles in the area to overwinter in. In addition, I also ran 3 joint sessions with The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) at Kinneil Estate, two of these were with TCV’s Bo’ness Academy groups and one with their Green Gym group. In these three sessions we created dead hedges near the two Come Forth for Wildlife ponds to hopefully deter dogs from running in and out of the ponds and disturbing the wildlife. These sessions went really well, and it was definitely a proper workout moving all the branches and logs across the site! The final 2 sessions I ran at Kinneil Local Nature Reserve which were closed group sessions with Bo’ness Beavers and Bo’ness Cubs. For these sessions I helped the Beavers and Cubs to carrying out litter picking and to create a hibernaculum. The groups were working towards their wildlife badge and learnt all about our native amphibians and reptiles in the session. In total, I engaged with 82 volunteers at these 5 sessions.
This month I also had the opportunity to lead the crafts activity at our final Pond Doctor Host Event at Balloch Castle Country Park! I ran a ‘Build your own Wildlife Home’ crafts activity where attendees could create bug hotels, ladybird houses, butterfly feeding stations or bird feeding stations.
Furthermore, I have also started on one of my training courses I’m booked onto: Wild Teams Project Management in Wildlife Conservation. I am finding it extremely useful, and I am also noticing how it links to The Come Forth for Wildlife project and Froglife as a whole. I also carried out internal training with James where I learnt about donor reporting and budget management. I am looking forward to my Brushcutters & Trimmers training course next week and the NCVO Good Practice in Volunteer Management the week after!



