It was a bright and crisp snowy day the first time I volunteered with BBOWT, and I was told we’d be ‘working with sheep’. As soon as I saw the snow-blanketed nature reserve, scattered with ice-covered anthills and animal tracks, and a small flock of sheep huddled in the corner of a field, I knew this was the job for me. My new colleagues, all experienced volunteers, piled out of the vehicle and prepared to herd in the flock while I was given a crash course on working with animals from my enthusiastic new boss, Tim.

We scrunched over the snow and slowly walked the sheep into a pen; then I watched in amazement as my colleagues each caught hold of a sheep and up-ended it to check its feet. Soon I was getting stuck in, flipping my own sheep and trimming its feet to keep them healthy. What a fantastic start to my career Like a lot of school leavers I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I’d always loved animals and being outside when I was growing up.

My school, Lord Williams’ s School in Thame, hosted a careers day where I made the decision to take a course on Countryside Management at the Berkshire College of Agriculture.

Although I didn’t realise it at the time, this course was the ticket to my perfect career. I unlocked my passion at college, and because I loved what I was doing, I learned loads. Now I knew that working with wildlife was my calling, when I finished my college course I looked for more of the same. With exciting, practical outdoors work being my goal I turned to Berks, Bucks and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, my local group. I signed up as a conservation trainee for 12 months, which allowed me to experience things such as surveying butterflies using a net to monitor numbers and looking after woodland to create places for wildlife. Then I found myself in the right place at the right time when BBOWT was recruiting a new intake of Developing Green Talent trainees for a year-long intensive programme (funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund) in practical conservation work, and preparation for jobs within the sector. Today I’m one of those trainees, and I’m based at Meadow Farm, near Blackthorn, covering the wonderful wetland reserves within the Upper Ray Meadows.

My work at the wildlife trust has led me to a huge variety of interesting situations and I’ve loved every minute of my journey so far. One day I’ll be awestruck at the sight of my first beautiful barn owl casually gliding silently across a misty field. The next I’ll be in the middle of a vast meadow on a hot summer’s day, engrossed in recording rare and spectacular wildflowers. Every task seems like fun, not work. The amount of training that I’ve received has been phenomenal: tractor driving or leading volunteers, BBOWT has provided all of it. The few years that I have spent with the wildlife trust really have been the most fulfilling and awe-inspiring of my life and I spend every moment looking forward to the next exhilarating day of work. Learning about wildlife, being outside and enjoying my work were three things I always wanted to do. I chased my dream and it was made possible by volunteering with BBOWT.

So if you’re like me and want to spend your days flipping over sheep and chasing butterflies, then give volunteering with BBOWT a go. You’ll never look back.

 

To find out more about volunteer taster days, log on to bbowt.org.uk and search for ‘volunteering’