Guide in a Hide is a popular volunteer-led activity at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, with visitor numbers increasing with each event. This usually takes place at the Gooder's Hide, but recently, our volunteers were delighted to receive an invitation to take the activity to the wider community, thanks to the Kent and East Sussex Railway (KESR).
The KESR team run special events and themed train journeys on key dates during the year and during the February half term, a bird-spotting activity was scheduled on selected days. As the twice-daily Tenterden train journey offers plenty of wetland views, Heather Packham of the KESR invited our volunteer birding experts to join the ride and act as guides on the trip.
With binoculars and scopes to hand, six volunteers: Stuart, Paul, Karen, Sally, Stephen and Linda joined the activity on different days, as bird guides across five different trips. KESR provided passengers with bird spotting sheets to use and our volunteers spent time making their way throughout the carriages, sharing binoculars and helping passengers to identify the birds they were seeing. This worked particularly well as the weather was not good for some of the trips, making visibility a bit tricky for beginning birders.
As well as ticking off the species they’d seen on their activity sheets, passengers - especially children - also enjoyed adding their sightings to the volunteers’ comment boards. They also showed enthusiasm for the experience of having personal bird guides on their trips by leaving a bit of feedback for the volunteers too, such as: ‘Volunteers friendly and a pleasure to see on the train today. Great knowledge, thank you.’
At the end of the successful week, Heather was also extremely happy with the success of the Guides on a Train activity:
'I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all of your lovely volunteers for coming along to support our February half term bird watching activities. It was most appreciated and really added to our overall offer. They were all delightful [...] and I hope we may be able to work together again in the future.'
Our Guide in a Hide volunteers are enthusiastic about inspiring children and young people to engage with nature and particularly enjoyed being involved with this half-term activity aimed at introducing children to wetland birds - many of which are exactly the same species as we see on the reserve.
Many thanks to our brilliant volunteers for supporting this activity and to the Kent and East Sussex Railway for inviting our Guides in a Hide to take part.
The Rye Harbour Nature Reserve Guide in a Hide activity takes place monthly - just drop in to the Gooder’s Hide and the Discovery Centre. This activity is free as part of the Discover Rye Harbour project, thanks to the support of our expert birding volunteers and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Please check the events page for details of the Rye Harbour Guide in a Hide activities.
This post is also available on Sussex Wildlife Trust website
