Part of the Lake District Osprey Project’s remit is to involve members of the local community and young people so we were very happy to welcome Laura on her work-experience placement earlier in the month. She has written this about her time with us-:

‘I go to Cockermouth School and for my placement chose Whinlatter Visitor Centre and Forest. I did a wide variety of activities including checking forest paths, serving behind the shop counter, looking at the new cycle path and working with the Osprey Project.

Whilst at Whinlatter Osprey exhibition I did several small jobs – collecting and counting the money from the donation boxes, sharpening 52 crayons! and writing the code on 176 leaflets! I then took a handful of the leaflets and walked around asking members of the public to help stop the persecution of birds of prey. I spent quite a while listening to Volunteers talking to the public about ospreys and answering their questions.

The next day I worked at the two Osprey Viewpoints. Firstly I helped set up the telescopes, fill the bird feeders and scatter nuts for the red squirrels. Then we set up the RSPB table. For the rest of the morning we got to watch the birds and squirrels while talking to the public. After lunch I went up to the top view point and was put in charge of recording everything that the ospreys did. I got some good views. Overall my time was both educational and enjoyable.’