Rye Harbour Nature Reserve staff and volunteers learning together

Katherine Crowther
, 07 March 2023
Rye Harbour Nature Reserve staff and volunteers learning together
Katherine Crowther

Rye Harbour Nature Reserve is a wonderful place to walk and enjoy wildlife, birdlife and scenic views and once a month staff and volunteers enjoy the opportunity to walk together. RHNR Volunteer Coordinator, Katherine Crowther, shares the benefits of these collective walks.

Each monthly walk is led by Phil Jones, who’s both a volunteer and a member of staff at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Phil’s also a qualified bird-ringer, member of the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and regular visitor for many years, all of which means he has an astounding knowledge of the reserve’s various habitats, plants and wildlife species. Keen to share his knowledge and joy, Phil volunteers to lead the walks: 'I love taking the monthly walks. It is a great opportunity to point out and identify some of the birds. More importantly for me is the chatting that goes on! We all get a chance to talk to staff and other volunteers and learn what else is going on around our wonderful reserve.'

Across the reserve

Depending on weather and season, Phil’s walks vary to feature different routes, giving staff and volunteers the opportunity to learn more about the various habitats for species which they might not be familiar with. This is extremely valuable in boosting knowledge - staff and volunteers alike - which helps us answer questions from the visiting public.

Across the year

These walks are scheduled once a month throughout the year, which means staff and volunteers can see seasonal changes across the reserve and learn to identify seasonally migrating birds and other species visitors may ask about. For instance, February’s staff and volunteer walk gave us a chance to see a group of Snipe off the Gooder’s Hide, and also meant Phil could share hints and tips for bird identification.

Across the roles

As a blended group of both staff and volunteers, another benefit from these monthly walks is spending time together away from rotas and usual roles. There's the chance to bond as a team, share anecdotes and learning experiences about being part of the RNHR community. This aspect of the walks is hugely beneficial to new staff and volunteers, who are encouraged to come on walks as part of their induction period.

Linda Wren, who has volunteered at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve for many years, attends these walks regularly and was particularly pleased to see so many new volunteers on February's walk: “the walk was great, Phil is brilliant at it. And a great turn out, lovely to see all the volunteers getting to know each other and so obviously interested in the reserve.”


During bird hide visits, Phil also has a fun feature of spotlighting staff to speak to the group about aspects of their work and what the focus for the coming season might be. This is a great way for everyone to find out more about what’s involved in other teams’ roles and to find out about events and activities coming up.

A huge thank you to Phil Jones and Lucy Bowyer for organising these walks, and to all staff and volunteers who take the time to come along and make these walks such a success.

To find out more about volunteering at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, please contact [email protected].

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1782921203.41970 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1782921203.44850.0288Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1782921203.44860.0001Server address: 216.73.217.103
1782921203.44870Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1782921203.44870Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/rye-harbour-nature-reserve-staff-and-volunteers-learning-together
    [s] => rye-harbour-nature-reserve-staff-and-volunteers-learning-together
    [1] => rye-harbour-nature-reserve-staff-and-volunteers-learning-together
)
1782921203.4490.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782921203.45030.0013 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1782921203.45240.0021 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1782921203.45390.0015INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1782921203.49870.0447 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22488359
1782921203.49960.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22488359
1782921203.50040.0009 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-01 15:53:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-01 15:53:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1782921203.50410.0037 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='rye-harbour-nature-reserve-staff-and-volunteers-learning-together')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-01 15:53:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1782921203.51910.015 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782921203.520.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=3019 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-01 15:53:00'
1782921203.52110.0011 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1782921203.52210.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1782921203.52290.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=70 LIMIT 1
1782921203.52350.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=189 LIMIT 1
1782921203.52390.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=47 LIMIT 1
1782921203.52460.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782921203.52480.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1782921203.52560.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-01 15:53:00' AND postSlug='rye-harbour-nature-reserve-staff-and-volunteers-learning-together'
1782921203.54660.021Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782921203.54720.0006 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1782921203.54880.0016Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1782921203.54910.0003 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1782921203.550.0009 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1782921203.5510.0011 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782921203.55390.0029 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782921203.55460.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782921203.55680.0022Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1782921203.55680 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782921203.55760.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782921203.55820.0006 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782921203.56070.0025 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782921203.56170.001 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782921203.56240.0008 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782921203.56480.0024 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782921203.56570.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1782921203.56810.0024 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1782921203.56860.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782921203.56880.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='26' LIMIT 1
1782921203.56950.0007Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1782921203.56990.0005 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='rye-harbour-nature-reserve-staff-and-volunteers-learning-together')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-01 15:53:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1782921203.57210.0022 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782921203.57270.0006 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782921203.57530.0026Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1782921203.57630.001 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=3019 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1782921203.62720.0509 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1782921203.62740.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782921203.62770.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='26' LIMIT 1
1782921203.62840.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1782921203.62920.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1782921203.63010.0009 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782921203.63230.0022 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782921203.6330.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782921203.6350.002 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782921203.63590.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782921203.63650.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782921203.63740.0009 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782921203.64010.0026 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782921203.64070.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782921203.64350.0028 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782921203.64760.0041 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1782921203.64850.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1782921203.64910.0006 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782921203.65210.003 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782921203.65280.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782921203.65550.0028 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782921203.65850.0029 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782921203.65940.001 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782921203.66030.0009 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782921203.66370.0034 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782921203.66440.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782921203.66760.0031 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782921203.66890.0013Request time: 0.2518
1782921203.66890Process time: 0.2516
1782921203.66890Memory: 1.6295