RSPB's longest-serving volunteer marks 60 years

THE RSPB’s longest-serving volunteer is celebrating 60 years of saving nature.

Nigel Hewitt, 77, first caught the volunteering bug aged 17.

He said: ‘For me initially it was the opportunity to get closer to the birds and nature.

‘Just being with wildlife, seeing wildlife, understanding wildlife, whether birds, mammals or insects, is mentally very good for me.’

Nigel’s first RSPB volunteering experience took him to Scotland during a break from studying for his A levels where he helped protect a pair of breeding Ospreys – the first pair to breed in the UK for more than 100 years.

About 85 per cent of the RSPB’s workforce is made up of volunteers.

Each year, 12,000 volunteers donate around one million hours of their time to help save nature – the equivalent of 513 full-time staff.

Throughout his school holidays and later during a 30-year career with Barclays, Nigel continued to volunteer in a wide range of roles and projects.

His volunteering has included helping with the Red-backed Shrike Project on Dartmoor and joining the Devon Cirl Bunting Recovery Project team after retiring.

Nigel said: ‘I think I’ve been involved in every aspect of the Cirl Bunting project since 1999, offering advice to landowners and farmers, delivering lectures, talks and walks, helping with stewardship and surveys, and helping to manage our two Cirl Bunting nature reserves here in Devon at RSPB Labrador Bay, near Shaldon, and Ashill.

‘I really enjoy leading walks around the reserves. It's wonderful to have people with you who are a captive audience, and I’ve got a fount of knowledge now to pass on to them.’

Once a widespread farmland bird in southern England, Cirl Buntings were almost lost from the UK during the 1980s and 1990s following changes in land management.

Successful conservation efforts to provide the birds with suitable habitat in their last remaining stronghold in south Devon have helped the population recover, with more than 1,000 pairs recorded in the last national survey in 2016.

The species is still predominantly found in south Devon.

Tim Hughes, RSPB Volunteering Development Officer (England), said: ‘Nigel’s exceptional achievement of 60 years of volunteering is a credit to the passion, dedication and drive he has shown.

‘Few individuals can demonstrate such sustained commitment, breadth of impact and enduring legacy as Nigel.

‘He has helped achieve some of the biggest successes in species recovery, notably for Cirl Buntings, while also strengthening the volunteer culture across the RSPB through his positive, dependable guidance and expertise.

‘We are incredibly grateful for everything he has done.’

To celebrate Nigel’s achievements, his local RSPB Devon team held a tea and cake celebration event. Nigel was presented with a custom-designed Cirl Bunting Long Service Award badge and certificate, a Wildwire Cirl Bunting sculpture.

Nigel was thrilled by the celebrations.

When asked why he would encourage others to volunteer for the RSPB, he said: ‘For me, the pleasure of seeing a bird you know you’ve done work to protect gives me so much satisfaction. You get the chance to just get out and do things. It’s a wonderful chance to give something back to the world.

‘And if I can volunteer for another… well, I won’t do another 60 years, that’s for sure. But David Attenborough is 100, so I could still be pottering around then.’