My week with Tarras Valley by Robin Sinclair

I’ve been due a sabbatical from RSPB since 2020, but Covid and other factors knocked it back a few years. In late 2024, I finally managed to get my act together and organise myself – I wanted to use my twenty days to do something that was linked to my role in some way, but also allowed me to get outside and do some practical conservation. Having been in regular contact with Jenny and others at Tarras Valley Nature Reserve over the years, through our joint work around hen harrier satellite tagging, I thought it would be worth speaking with them about any opportunities they might have. I had a great chat with Jenny and Kat, and between us we came up with a plan.

The TVNR team were in the process of creating a 5 year action plan (now published –Our 5 Year Plan – Tarras Valley Nature Reserve), part of which was focussed around the future creation of a monitoring plan, so that the team could keep an eye on the progress of their ecosystem restoration efforts, and make sure their management was paying off. I agreed to have a go at creating this plan, which would allow me to get back to my roots in ecology, having graduated from a degree in Ecology and Conservation back in 2012. Alongside this, I’d also spend a week at Tarras Valley, doing some practical work and helping out with other goings on at the reserve – more of that later!

Having seen a draft of the action plan, I decided to focus the monitoring plan on three main habitats that the plan referred to – the peatlands, the upland birchwoods and the riparian woodlands. Fortunately, I have contacts in the RSPB Ecology team who were specialists in both peatland restoration and woodland ecology, so having discussed with them, I began to pull together lists of monitoring objectives for each habitat. These lists each consisted of a number of key things to monitor (e.g. sphagnum mosses and large heath butterflies in the peatland, fixed-point photography and breeding birds in both woodland types), and additional lists of other species and habitat features that could be monitored if time allowed. This was a really interesting process, and I felt like I learnt a huge amount along the way. After a couple of months of working on the monitoring plan once a week, I had a complete plan for all three habitats, and had sense-checked it with my Ecology team contacts. So, with that complete, I was ready for a week of practical work on the reserve.

I headed down the road on the Sunday evening to my Airbnb in Waterbeck, a short drive over the hill from Langholm. Come Monday morning, I met Jenny and Kat at the TVNR office in town and was immediately welcomed with a cuppa and a good chat (and a great greeting from Milo and the other office pooches!). Once I’d settled in, Jenny gave me a short presentation about the history of the reserve, the community buyout, and plans for the future, before Kat and I headed off in the truck for a grand tour of the site. Having only ever seen the site on maps, it was brilliant to see it in context – the new ponds at the Lower Tarras looked fantastic, and the first phase of the peatland restoration already had some deep pools in amongst the heather. Unfortunately, I was in the process of recovering from a nasty virus, so after lunch we decided it was best to call it a day, as the following days were looking busy.

Tuesday began with a change of plan, as the school group who were due to visit for the morning had to cancel as they had a problem with the minibus and couldn’t make it. Back at the office, we decided to take advantage of the time we now had to head up to the tree nursery and sort through some saplings, getting them ready for planting in the future. Although Milo did his best to cause as much chaos as possible, we made good progress and filled over a dozen bags with 150+ saplings ready for planting. With aching limbs but the knowledge that we’d started a job that had been hanging over the team for a while, we wrapped up for the day.

On Wednesday, the school had managed to get their minibus back working, so a group of S3s came through for a morning of bushcraft. After a bit of effort, they all managed to split some kindling and get a good fire going in their groups. After eating some of the biggest marshmallows know to humankind, they all had a go at whittling – an all-around success, and no injuries too! Even though the weather wasn’t brilliant, the kids kept their spirits up and a good time was had by all. In the afternoon, Jenny and I headed back up to the tree nursery and continued sorting through some of the saplings.

On Thursday, we had a full day visit from a local primary school’s P6s to the Lower Tarras – a brilliant day consisting of some tree planting (where at least some of the trees came away with names – shoutout to Tom and Jerry!) and wildflower seed mix planting. Really, though, the kids just wanted to explore – they had a fantastic time conquering a steep hill, before discovering some frogspawn in very shallow puddles, which obviously needed to be rescued. So, back down the hill (this time via the path!) to gather some buckets and trowels, then up again to carefully scoop it in. With precious cargo carried down to the edges of the new ponds, it was gently deposited in the edge of the pond – so hopefully by now the ponds will be teeming with healthy tadpoles, or even some wee frogs.

Friday came with some sadness, as I was having a great time – but all good things come to an end! However, before I had to head back up the road, we had the regular TVNR volunteer group, who were tasked with planting some saplings on the slopes above the new Lower Tarras ponds. It was a relatively small group who turned up on the day, so we split off into pairs and set to our jobs. Steve and I had a good chat whilst planting around 30 saplings, with Harry and Steve getting a similar number into the ground too. We rounded off the session with a hot drink, just as the rain started coming down – great timing!

Once we’d made it back to the office and had a bite to eat, it was time for a final chat – this time about the monitoring plan that I’d written. It was great to discuss the plan in detail with Jenny, Kat and Angela – hopefully I answered some of their questions adequately! Again, putting the work I’d done on paper into context on the ground was great, and hopefully the plan will be a good start for future monitoring.

All in all, I had a brilliant time, both writing the monitoring plan and especially during my week down at the reserve. I can’t wait to see how the site progresses, and I’ll definitely be back to visit over the coming years to see the changes in action. I’d like to give a huge thanks to the whole team at TVNR for hosting me for the week, and especially to Kat and Jenny for keeping me busy!

A final side-point, I thoroughly recommend visiting Waterbeck in the evenings – there’s an absolutely stunning starling murmuration that appeared every evening at dusk – well worth a watch!