Corporate volunteering in World Wetlands
Guest blog post by Esther Harvey of Betfair
On a beautiful late August morning we descended on WWT London Wetland Centre for a day’s volunteering. The weather was perfect and the abundance of flowers, butterflies and wild birds made a welcome change of scenery from Hammersmith – it was hard to believe we were still in London! While a day’s sunbathing in these surroundings would have been idyllic, we were there to do some good, so armed with shovels, forks and a good dose of elbow grease, we set to work.
Our challenge was to overhaul the Falklands beach habitat under the supervision of David from the WWT, and some inquisitive feathered residents. The entire area was looking quite scruffy and needed to be returned to its former glory, yet had to remain as natural looking as possible. We started by weeding which proved hard work, yet it wasn’t long before we’d filled the back of a trailer with waste and had a well-deserved break to grab some lunch. The next task was to lay new silver sand and large rocks over the beach, replicating the kind of environment the birds would be used to in the wild. Birds often nest and raise young in these habitats – we’d already seen a host of ducklings in other sections – so it was important to do the job well.
Once we had finished for the day we were exhausted but very proud of what we had achieved – especially when staff and visitors commented on our results. The team at the centre were very grateful for our help and our hard work was rewarded with a chance to see the very cute otters at feeding time. The day was thoroughly enjoyed by all and the satisfaction we felt having successfully achieved our task was wonderful. The centre does a very valuable service and relies on the support of volunteers to stay successful. We certainly hope to return and highly recommend this experience to everyone
