Young Birders - Camera Trap Monitoring Project

This Spring we have a really exciting opportunity for our Young Birders with this Camera Trapping Project at Rewilding Estates where you'll be able to take part in setting up of trail cameras and monitoring equipment, a workshop of how to use the equipment and become remote volunteers for BoPH processing the data. 

All of this is part of a new project looking at 2 estates in Dorset that are looking to rewild their land. Each area is looking to re-wet the landscape, re-introduce species, remove non-native plants and generally encourage nature recovery. Our Young Birders will have the opportunity to be a part of this, with 2 full-day workshops in the field to complete a monitoring project, assessing the baseline of species present. We'll look to monitor what birds and mammals are using the site as well as population info and behaviour. This will help to feed into ongoing management of the estates. Hopefully we'll learn more about species like Badgers, Foxes, Deer, Otter along with a whole host of birds which we can monitor.

The outline of the days will include meeting at Careys Secret Garden for the morning, before heading to the Hyde Estate via minibus for monitoring across both areas. On the first visit we will carry out a workshop on how to install the equipment and best practice before then heading out into the field to install the equipment and on the second visit we will have a workshop on monitoring the data before then collecting the equipment. Young Birders can then go away as remote volunteers to process the data and pull out the important information. This is a great opportunity for learning important wildlife monitoring skills and would look good on a CV!

These events are free for anyone between the ages 13-18. Don't worry if you can't attend both events, just one of these will be a great experience and mean you can still be part of the project.

Transport:

Careys Secret Garden can be reached by car, bike or walking. It is a 30 minute walk from Wareham Station. Directions to the Gardens will be included in your ticket. We can support with transport and local travel costs so please do get in touch with us if you have any questions or concerns.

Key Information:

• Please note that you are not required to print your ticket as we will use a digital guestlist for checking you in.
• Please ensure to arrive at the meeting point in the walled garden 15 minutes before the event, where you will be greeted by a member of the BoPH team.
• There are toilet facilities at Careys Secret Garden.
• Please bring a packed lunch and plenty of water for each day
• Please bring appropriate clothing, including waterproofs and layers for any possible weather conditions.
• We will be going off footpath so walking conditions may be tricky in some areas. We recommend bring wellies or walking boots you don't mind getting muddy.
• Unfortunately due to the terrain of the sites these events are not suitable for wheelchair access. Please contact us if you have any accessibility questions.

Please note that for this event, we will not be providing adult tickets to accompany the Young Birders. As this is a specifically funded event for 13-18s to make this no charge and we have limited spaces available, we want to offer as many as possible to the young people. We will have at least 2 members of staff present at the event with all relevant safeguarding training. We also find that the Young Birders interact, learn from each other and ask more questions when parents are not present. If there are specific circumstances that mean a parent must attend we can make accommodations, but you must make sure to let us know beforehand. We hope this makes sense, please get in touch with us if you have any questions.

Please make sure to complete the following consent form if you intend to book a Young Birders Place on the event, if you haven't done so already.