Opportunities

After visiting the fish survey team I was back in the office; unfortunately work was more than a lovely boat ride on a sunny day. Though as much as I loved being on the Broad, I was just as thankful for my time in the office. Having the opportunity to sit down with my supervisor and talk about what I wanted to get out of my placement was really helpful, not only in putting it into context of my future, but also in forcing me to plan out my weeks in a more productive way.


Suddenly I had a lot of mini projects of my own to work on and I had more balls to keep in the air than I'd ever done before. But I had a very supportive team around me and the work was something I could get excited about. If science writing was where I saw my future heading then I had many chances to build up my experience. Alongside the project updates on the website and a piece in the Broads Biodiversity Newsletter there were the educational resources I had to work on.


This involved researching a long list of species found on the Nature Trail, starting with moths and spiders - beetles proved a little more difficult to find species-specific information on as most books covered beetles in general, and there are a lot of beetles! This was something I'd always pictured myself doing; reading up on species so I could write something informative for the public about the fascinating lives of the creatures outside their front door. And the long list of invertebrate species promised to keep me busy for several weeks.


However behind this I had a few more opportunities ticking over in the background. While all species interest me, bats are a particular favourite and as part of Natural England I had access to several contacts who could help get me more involved with them. Winter couldn't offer me much but I was promised that the rapidly approaching Spring would provide me more close up experience. On top of that there was more excitement in the form of a potential visit to another LIFE project, much like Severn Rivers Trust had done. Searching the database on the LIFE website, there were so many great conservation projects going on across Europe - it was hard to narrow down the list. But there would be a lot of work to do before this possibility became a reality.


Finally, to help spread the word about our beautiful Broad I was given a small peer group to engage with on my own. Our Access and Engagement Officer - who'd recently organised a very successful press day, despite Storm Doris - would always have my back but inviting student societies at the University of East Anglia to our Broad, was my responsibility. I knew who to contact, I'd been a part of some of them during my first two years, and I had a few ideas of my own for the actual visit. Though as luck would have it our HLF monitor was visiting that week so I saw one of the ideas my supervisor had for what a visit like that could look like.


Before a meeting with our Heritage Lottery Fund monitor on how the project was progressing, we had a little walk around the Nature Trail. The task we were given was a simple one; take the selection of colour cards you've been given and search the Nature Trail for them. It was very effective. For one it slowed us down a lot; you could easily walk round the trail in only a few minutes if you wanted to, and made us really pay attention to the habitat around us. At first glance the winter scene might look drab but it's actually made up of a huge variety of colour; a tree trunk isn't simply 'brown'. Furthermore our preconceptions of what colours we would find were challenged; for a wetland habitat surrounded by water, we found very little 'blue'.


My life wasn't accustomed to being busy but I surprised myself with how much I looked forward to tackling each task and the structured days working in an office like an adult were starting to feel less alien, and more comfortable.