Experiencing the Wildlife (and the Wardens)

September 3, 2019 | Nature news | 3 minute read

In late spring I emailed the Holkham Estate asking if it would be possible to do some work experience on the wildlife reserve to go alongside my degree in Marine Biology and Oceanography at the University of Southampton, and I was welcomed with open arms – despite turning up for my first day in bright pink wellies looking like I was heading for a festival!

I wasn’t really sure what to expect whilst shadowing Paul, Andy and Jonny in their roles as wildlife wardens on the NNR, and now having spent just over a month with them in early summer I can see it’s a very hard job to explain. I learnt so many things, from rescuing baby seals, to learning how to use power drills, to identifying rare orchids. As well as the hands-on work I got to do, I also spent my last week observing the future plans for digging channels to help the habitat in the fields either side of Lady Anne’s Drive. I found this in particular interesting and I’m really excited to go back in the winter and see the revamp of the area, and the wildlife that I’m sure will be thriving in it.

Holkham freshmarsh

Helping to take a primary school group of over three hundred children into the woods to go minibeast hunting was probably one of the most chaotic things I’ve ever done, but for the wardens it’s just another day in the office. One minute the children were curiously asking what the insects were, the next they were squishing them between their little fingers or dropping them on the floor to no doubt be accidentally stepped on later!

The nature reserve’s scale amazed me, having not realised how large it was before I started to volunteer, and the colossal number of species present stunned me. Everywhere you look, there’s some form of animal life, even the most minute ladybirds that could be mistaken for a full stop had they been on a piece of paper and not a tree!

The NNR wardens’ knowledge seems to know no bounds; I was amazed at how they can identify a bird purely from its distant silhouette in the sky, the same going for smaller animals such as dragonflies and butterflies. I don’t think I ever stopped asking questions. If you ever have the opportunity to visit the reserve no matter what time of the year, I can’t recommend it enough, and if you’re lucky you might just bump in to one of the wardens!

Rescued seal

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