Wildlife Rangers at Warnham Nature Reserve
Tamara Jewell
Gatwick Greenspace Partnership Officer
Recently Wildlife Rangers were lucky enough to be invited to Warnham Nature Reserve in the opening week of their new Discovery Hub, with this session being sponsored by Horsham District Council.
What a treat to explore! Our plans for willow coppicing were curtailed due to gusty winds and rain, but Wildlife Rangers would not be put off so easily. Instead we embarked on making some bird feeders for the avian visitors on the reserve.
Many years ago, our very own Thomas Simpson helped plant an orchard at Warnham so that visiting Field Fares, Thrushes and other ground-feeding birds would have a tasty supply of food with the onset of winter.
As we busied ourselves in a gazebo, decorating our apples with sunflower seed adornments, one young person likened our bird feeder making as the wildlife equivalent of the Great British Bake Off.
It was a tense wait to see who’s creation would win a Nuthatch hand shake or become the Great Tit’s Star Maker.
The new Discovery Hub provided the perfect spot to observe other Wildlife visitors to the Millpond. Dabbles of diving ducks, Greylag Geese, Great Crested Grebe and Cormorants fanning feathers were the stars of the show.
That is until we ventured further around the reserve to Herons hide, where we hoped to catch a glimpse of the elusive Kingfisher. We were teased by an orange leaf on the far side of the pond that looked a little like the Fishing King on a perch, until we saw the real thing, a flash of blue flying fast and low over the water, a turquoise bullet with a high pitched call disappeared amongst the reeds in a blink.
It was a shrill thrill of a showstopper and as always Wildlife Rangers went home having risen to the technical challenge!
Over 80% of young people are eager to take action to help the environment according to new national statistics published by Natural England.
At Gatwick Greenspace Partnership, we are keen to support young people in this aim both at our Wildlife Ranger group for 12-16 year olds and our Youth Rangers group for 16-25 year olds. Please get in touch here if you would like to have fun and take action for wildlife.
