I’ve been all over this month; from the fisheries unit in Dorset to the Staff Conference in Leicestershire. But of course, a lot of my time was spent in Mid Wales, where work on Land of the Curlew has begun!
Volunteering at GWCT’s fisheries unit
To gain more experience with salmon and trout surveys, Kaylee Fay and I were accepted to be two of this year’s volunteers at GWCT Fisheries department. The Fisheries team are a knowledgeable and friendly bunch, with lots of experience to share to volunteers. The week included both night and day shifts, offering lots of varied working times, although the team were very flexible to our needs. Our main roles included checking the salmon trap for fish, cleaning the trap when necessary, assisting data collection using Excel and releasing fish back to the river. So, there were lots of fish to see and record, especially during the night shift where we would expect to see a couple hundred fish in just one night!
The trap works by flowing fish into a pipeline that reaches the sample box, which is used to lift the fish from the river to the surface, ready to inspect. Once the fish were captured by the licenced experts, they are brought to the recording station to take measurements, such as weight, height and any tags, and sometimes scales were taken for further lab analysis. All this data collection helps to support salmon and trout conservation projects on site, such as understanding how changes to salmonid smolt demographics are changing over time or monitoring the salmon lifecycle across the river Frome and beyond.
After learning more about salmon and trout lifecycles and how changes to catchment and climate can affect populations passing through the River Frome, it fills me with inspiration to start looking at how GWCT Wales could support salmon passing through Welsh seas and rivers.
There were also some other visitors to the trap, such as Perch (as pictured), Minnow and Dace.
If you are also interested in volunteering at GWCT’s fisheries, please visit Volunteer – Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust for more information.
Staff conference at the Allerton Project
The all-staff conference was my first time encountering the wider GWCT team in person, so there were lots of oppertunities for networking and learning more about the different GWCT projects across the rest of the UK.
The first day was filled with research talks in the field, explaining many of the on-site projects involving soil, ecology and sustainable game. It was especially interesting to hear about John Szczur’s work on Yellowhammers in person after using his research papers to support Welsh yellowhammer project development.
Across the two days, there was also plenty of tea brakes to chat to the students about all their different roles and lines of work. Many are very different to my own role, with some specialising in certain subjects, like GIS, data analysis or upland ecology.
The staff conference was valuable to me because it makes the best opportunity to talk to new people across the trust and connect ideas and knowledge.
Beginning of a new curlew season
Land of the Curlew project has begun, with plenty of early mornings (and plenty of coffee) throughout the start of this curlew season! Several volunteers and members have been in contact with us already about curlew sightings across farmland, which has helped us to identify and prioritise our site visits with farmers.
Me and the team have already started to pinpoint areas of potential nesting sites in mid Wales, ready to fence off.
If you would like to report farmland curlew sightings, please fill in this short form:
https://www.gwct.wales/report-a-curlew/
