Hi all,
Kieren Jones the Machair apprentice here to give you an update as to where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing.
I left the island in December 2010 under a bit of distress. I sat on the back of the ferry looking forlornely back at the island I was leaving and the life I had left behind. I’m not going to hide my disappointment at the way it all ended as I was so confident of winding up spending another few years out there only to have it pulled from under my feet. I did however have the comfort of a few months of work doing SRDP applications on a self employed level.
I got those completed pretty quickly and they were sent off for checking, I booked a chainsaw course and completed that in January and then I had to wait quite a while for my payment so money was fairly tight for a few months. In March 2011 I was offered not one but two interviews! One for a smallish windfarm company wanting to have their own ecologist taking care of their environmental responsibilities and one for a slightly larger company, to join a team of 5 ecologists doing windfarm surveys on a large scale. I umm-ed and aah-ed while I was waiting to hear back as to which one I’d take. I was eventually offered both and I had to make a split second decision (with a hangover to boot). Over the course of a quick shower to clear my head I opted for the ecologist company and here I am today, 2 weeks shy of completing my first year in the job.
While Uist was challenging because of the remoteness, this job has offered me new challenges, mostly the lone working aspect. I spend up to an hour walking to my vantage points, usually a fairly steep climb and then spend up to 6 hours sitting on that spot looking for birds that might stop a developer putting up their turbines. It’s not quite as glamarous on the bird front as you might expect, there’s been more than a few surveys with nothing – not a buzzard, a raven or even a crow to show for it!
I’m enjoying the learning aspect of this job, my GIS skills have come along, my bird ID skills too, we’re moving into other species like newts soon as well as bat work on the horizon so I’m content. It’s very much a job for the young guns though, there’s been a lot of 3-4 nights away per week and I just can’t imagine someone with a kid or a spouse wanting to do this work for long. I’ve been well warned that within a few years the outside stuff starts to dry up and I become an office jockey but for now I’m more content with a fair mix of once per week in the office, just so I know what’s going on with the company.
Overall the work is pretty strenuous on the old body, sitting in the snow during the winter has been pretty tough going even with multiple pairs of socks on.
I’ve taken up bird ringing on my weekends and found a teacher very close to my house. That’s been great, the more I get to see birds the better as I really need to get to know them inside and out for this line of work.
A nice aspect that’s lingered from the apprenticeship has been that people have kept in touch or got in touch through this blog, it’s good to know people actually read it!
Well I’ve included a photo of the ringing for you below my email address and as always, feel free to get in touch on Kieren_Jones@hotmail.com
Take care, keep volunteering, always make yourselves available for any opportunity that comes your way