May update from our Lederman Trainees
By Mark Newton and Rosie Hutchings
Lederman Trainees
Mark
This month I started my first Forest School sessions in earnest, leading a group of 16-21 year olds at Tilgate Park with the wonderful assistance of Gatwick Greenspace Partnership Officer Tamara Jewell. The participants are English Language (ESOL) students at Crawley College, who hail from Afghanistan, Iraq, Senegal, Romania and Pakistan. Because my group have had mental health challenges and trauma in their lives, it’s been a tremendously therapeutic experience for them. The Forest School sessions integrate language learning with practical activities in a woodland setting, and it’s been such a joy witnessing my group develop not just their hand-skills but also their confidence and self-esteem over the last few weeks.
Rosie
This month I started assisting with my first Forest School sessions. I was working alongside Forest School Leader Renzo Spano to deliver exciting, wild days for a class of reception students in Brighton. I have participated in three sessions so far. It’s been really nice to see the difference it’s making to the children involved and I’m made aware of just how important it is for them to spend time outside, particularly at this stage of their development.
Earlier on in May I joined bird specialist Mike Russell on a birdsong course at Friston Forest. It was a lovely day of wandering through the woods and learning how to identify a huge range of birds by their song. I haven’t got them all down but I’m starting to be able to decipher a few calls when I’m out and about.
Mark
The month of May has been very ornithologically-oriented for me too. As I mentioned in April’s blog, I’ve found my calling in the area of bird conservation, so I’ve been helping Mike Russell and Head of Community Action for Wildlife, Michael Blencowe on their guided birdwatching walks. We’ve been up before sunrise to hear the dawn chorus, sought out elusive warbler species to identify them by song, and stayed up late to listen to Nightingale serenades. Another particularly exciting experience for me has been learning how to ring birds with Rye Harbour Reserves Manager David King. The process takes years to master and will require many more years of training even after I complete my Lederman Traineeship, but by making a start with a licensed bird-ringer I’m getting a good grounding in what could be a lifelong career.
Rosie
Mark and I recently took a trip with Reserves Manager Steve Webster to some of the westernmost reserves. It was great to explore new habitats and it made me realise just how much diversity our county has. As part of this trip we took a visit to West Dean Woods, an active hazel coppicing site. I really loved this place and hope to re-visit to do some work here in the coming months. I can’t wait to return to each of these sites and explore further. It’s really nice to work on a variety of reserves as they each have very different management strategies, depending on their habitat, size and conservation aim.
Mark
At Leysdown Cottage, Rosie and I have been continuing to improve the infrastructure with another gate-hanging session, this time with the start of a kissing-gate structure. It’s been really satisfying seeing the land of the estate improve with these new features, and there’ll be more to report on as we continue the work.
In our last blog we mentioned monitoring the bat species with a sound recording device on the site. The results are in, and we’re excited to announce that we recorded Common and Soprano Pipistrelle species, as well as the possibility of Whiskered and Brandt’s bats flitting around the house.
Rosie
We’ve also started putting out a trail camera in the woodland here at Leysdown. It’s been so exciting to see the wildlife at night. So far we have had deer, rabbits, and most excitingly of all, two Badgers! We’re very happy with the results and will continue to monitor this area and others around the estate.
At the end of this month, we had a day at Leythorne Meadow near Chichester with Reserves Manager Mark Monk-Terry and his group of regular volunteers. We helped clear some areas of bramble and thistle to expand the grassland meadow and encourage species diversity by removing some of the competition. This gave us the opportunity to put our brush cutter training into practice!
Mark
Most recently, we’ve been on a butterfly ID and transect methodology course with Butterfly Conservation Transect coordinator Bill Downey and ecologist Rachel Bicker. With our newly acquired skills in identifying and recording butterflies, we should be able to set up some transects at the Leysdown Estate. More to come of our ecological surveys as the wheel of the year turns…
