Welcome to the LDV NNR ringing blog, this blog is designed to share the experiences, findings and tales from a group of dedicated ringers. We specialise in conservation orientated research projects, largely focusing on wildfowl, waders, owls and birds of conservation concern, in and around the Vale of York NNR's.

NB - Whilst the purpose of this blog was initially designed to cover our nationally important wildfowl ringing activities, it now also features wildlife and work posts, explaining how we manage the NNR for both wildlife and people.

For daily sightings please visit our Twitter account: https://twitter.com/ldv_nnr (@LDV_NNR)

For details of events, volunteer tasks and wildlife images please visit our Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/Lower-Derwent-Valley-Skipwith-Common-NNR

Thursday, 20 October 2022

15/10/22 - Corporate volunteering

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been delighted to welcome a number of groups to the NNR, as part of their corporate volunteering allowance. Staff from HSE, TSYS, Aviva, Defra and Virgin Media have all had a break from their day-to-day jobs and experienced a day working with our reserve team.

With our ever-growing job list, having so many extra pairs of hands makes a huge difference to what we can achieve on the reserve each year, as well as to the wildlife that lives here and the people who visit the site – and with our team hard at work at the moment trying to get all the scrub clearance finished before the reserve floods later in the year, the extra help recently has been much appreciated.

Recent groups have been helping with the ongoing management work at the Hollow Swang reedbed at Skipwith Common NNR, and the annual task of managing willows in the Lower Derwent Valley. Managing the willows helps to retain the wide-open landscape and decreases the number of nesting or perching areas for crows, whilst also improving sight lines from the hides, with low-lying willows retained/managed for use by breeding birds and invertebrates.

If you work for an organisation that allows staff to undertake volunteering days throughout the year, please do get in touch.