Darent Valley - Volunteers Update

Darent Valley Update - Kerry

It feels a long time ago, but thank you to the Darent Valley Volunteers who attended the Volunteer Christmas Party at Tyland Barn in December. It was wonderful to finally meet some you in person and put faces to names!

We continued the social theme into January, where more faces were put to more names at our Volunteer and Landowner Social at the Samuel Palmer pub. With landowner and volunteers chatting and sharing stories about the area and work done over the last year, it was a great evening and a lovely way to celebrate progress on the Darent Valley Landscape Recovery so far. So much so that I forgot to take a single photo! If anyone took any photos at this event, please do send them over to us by email or Whatsapp, as we would love to see them.

Lastly, a success story. We have been working with DVLR project partner Northwest Kent Countryside Partnership (NWKCP) to support Barn owls in the Darent Valley. As many of you will be aware, we installed a camera on one of the owl boxes and were getting some great images come through. Sadly, the beautiful Ash tree supporting the box and camera was felled in recent storms. We feared for the owls we knew to be using this space, so NWKCP and Darent Valley Volunteers rescued and re-installed the box on a nearby tree… under supervision of a curious cow. (photo credit Jennie Showers).

The camera has now also been re-installed and we delighted to say that the owls have been seen using the box again! Many thanks to volunteers Jennie, John and Sally who assisted with the rescue mission, and all the other volunteers who offered to help.

Thank you for all your hard work in 2023 - looking forward to continuing to work with you all in this exciting next year of the project! Kerry