Image credit: Becca Smith
At holidaycottages.co.uk, we love our wildlife and we're aware that nature in the UK is more extraordinary and wilder than many people realise. From booming bitterns to soaring white-tailed eagles, expansive fungi networks to battling butterflies, epic gannet colonies to engineering beavers – our tiny island is full of wonders. However, we were surprised to learn from our RSPB partners that the UK is one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries. As of right now, one in seven of our native wildlife species face extinction.
Luckily, it’s not too late to get stuck in and help to save nature. You may be surprised to hear that the autumn and winter months are a brilliant time of year for volunteering outside. It’s quieter and the landscape is still, making it a great time to prepare before spring arrives in full force. It’s also important to get outdoors for your own sake during the darker months, and volunteering with charities such as the RSPB is a wonderful way to do just that.
For ideas and advice on how and why to volunteer during the autumn and winter months, read our guide below. If you’re keen to visit one of the RSPB’s vital sites, click the button below to find your perfect cottage near nature reserves.
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Image credit: Rosemary Despres
Why volunteer during autumn and winter?
Spring and summer are often jam-packed with outdoor events and visitors to the reserves.
However, during the autumn and winter months, an air of peace and quiet descends over these very special habitats.
There’s still plenty of work to be done and it’s a very different atmosphere for the volunteers who choose to get involved at this time of year – not to mention, simply being outside during the winter months can have a huge effect on our mood.
After surveying over 1,000 RSPB volunteers, the RSPB discovered that 87% felt that volunteering with the RSPB improved their health and well-being.
Also, 74% of people felt that volunteering for the RSPB improved their mental health and 66% their physical health.
Getting involved in a project by volunteering offers the opportunity to connect with others, learn new skills, share experiences, and make an impact. All these things can help us feel physically and mentally better.
“I was suffering from grief and subsequently stopped working after many years in primary education. Feeling very lost and isolated, I decided to volunteer. This role gave me a purpose to leave the house, engage with new people, learn new skills, and take regular walks in the forest.” — RSPB volunteer
Image credit: Chris Gomersall
RSPB reserves that need autumn/winter volunteers
If you like being out and about in nature or meeting new people, you can volunteer at one of many reserves across the country. The RSPB reserves are all unique and can be found in a whole host of rural and urban locations – from Forsinard in the wilds of Scotland to Old Moor in Dearne Valley.
Reserve volunteers do all sorts, from welcoming visitors to the site and showing them around and helping in shops and cafes, to planting trees, digging ditches, painting hides, and monitoring species by helping with surveys.
Image credit: Terry Bagley
Manage woodland at Franchises Lodge, Wiltshire
Franchises Lodge is a 1,000-acre site in the New Forest, and it’s one of several areas of woodland in the UK that holidaycottages.co.uk supports through our partnership with the RSPB.
Going into autumn and winter, conservation work will concentrate on the removal of highly invasive rhododendron ponticum. Although beautiful, this plant is one of the biggest threats to the reserve and if left uncontrolled, it has significant and detrimental effects on wildlife by smothering native flora and reducing biodiversity. Franchises Lodge has work parties most weeks who volunteer in teams to clear the more delicate or harder-to-access areas of the site.
Over the upcoming months, this reserve will need volunteers to help with thinning silver birch woodland and tidying and stacking timber for future projects.
Looking for something less physical? You could help by regularly exploring serene woodland, all the while connecting with nature and doing your bit to help by keeping an eye out for rubbish across the site and marking it for collection.
Image credit: Sara Porter
Collect seeds and plant trees at Haweswater, Cumbria
Haweswater is a rugged landscape of ancient woodland, rushing streams and rolling hills of heathland. Care of cattle, sheep and ponies and maintaining many miles of dry-stone walls and fences continue all year round, but autumn and winter are the best times for certain restoration work.
The reserve has its own native tree and wildflower nursery, and autumn is the main time of year for collecting seeds, which ensures any trees and wildflowers planted are from as local a source as possible.
Volunteers will be able to venture into the woods this autumn and take in the beauty of leaves turning red, yellow and orange while gathering hazelnuts, acorns, rowan berries, bird cherries, hawthorn berries, crab apples and many more to take back to the nursery to grow into new trees.
Winter is the best time for tree planting, as it allows time for their roots to establish themselves. To tackle the nature and climate crises, it’s crucial that we extend our existing native woodlands out into the places they once grew.
By volunteering at the reserve in winter, you could help with replacing any trees that might have failed, as well as planting new ones. You could be responsible for planting an acorn sapling that one day grows into a mighty oak tree at this enchanting RSPB site.
Image credit: Ben Hall
Plant moss and build dams at Dove Stone, Lancashire
Dove Stone is home to an internationally important blanket bog, which is a type of peatland formed in the uplands.
Conservation work at Dove Stone during autumn and winter is primarily focused on peatland restoration to improve water quality, biodiversity and SSSI conditions, and secure carbon locked up in the peat.
Blocking erosion gullies slows the flow of water off the moor which creates the ideal conditions for sphagnum moss and grasses to thrive. Volunteers can don their wellies and get involved by planting sphagnum plugs, a type of moss, which acts as a giant sponge and naturally retains water to keep the peat as wet as possible.
Alternatively, you could support the reserve by building leaky dams made of willow on the peat edges, a technique that mimics a natural process on peatland margins and helps stabilise areas where peat forms.
Image credit: Sam Turley
More ways to volunteer with the RSPB
If reserve volunteering isn’t for you, the RSPB also has plenty of office and home-based roles. Or you can share your skills by volunteering remotely. The RSPB has a fantastic range of volunteering roles – here are just a few of the ways you can donate your time and skills:
- Graphic designers
- Database volunteers
- Photographic volunteers
- Administrators
- Social media managers
And if you just have a few minutes, you could even share RSPB campaigns and stories on social media.
For hundreds of ideas on how to make a difference and to view volunteering opportunities, visit the RSPB’s dedicated volunteer hub to find out how you can get involved.
Tips for supporting wildlife during autumn and winter
Across the UK, people are taking action for nature in their local communities. Whether you are in the countryside, a bustling town or a city centre, there are hundreds of little (and big) things you can do, to make a difference.
Image credit: Ben Hall
Ways you can help nature during autumn and winter
- Litter picking – take a bag and thick gloves and go litter picking on country lanes, parks and along the coast. It’s a great way to give back to your local community – to both the human and the animal occupants!
- Feed the birds – food is scarce at this time of year for wildlife, so if you really want to give nature a boost in your garden, put out bird feeders with plenty of high-fat foods. It may take a while for the birds to find them if you’ve never done it before, but once they do, they’ll be sure to bring their friends.
- Plant trees – the best time of year to plant trees is between October and April as it gives the tree a chance to establish itself before the hot, dry summer months.
- Build a dead hedge – most trees benefit from pruning in mid-late winter so you might be able to get your hands on spare branches to create a dead hedge and give insects like ladybirds and bees a place to hibernate next winter.
- Start composting – if you don’t already, why not try composting? It’s a great way to improve your soil and can be done all year round.
- Plan for the year ahead – make the most of this quiet and peaceful time of year by looking to the months ahead. You can take the time to build birdboxes for spring when garden birds are raising their young, or build hedgehog houses and bug hotels for next winter when the critters in your garden will need a place to hibernate safely.
Whether you’re recycling, composting, putting up bird boxes, birdwatching, litter picking or making window boxes, there’s no shortage of ways you can make a difference, create wildlife-friendly spaces and get close to nature during autumn and winter.
Stay near an RSPB reserve
One of the best ways you can support the RSPB is simply by visiting, learning and exploring a nature reserve. We have self-catering forest retreats, cottages set in moorland and holiday lets by the coast, and we have plenty of properties close to RSPB sites too.
Browse through our collection today and begin planning a trip to one of the RSPB's many important reserves across the UK.
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