RSPB volunteer Nigel Hewitt marks 60 years
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- Nigel Hewitt has volunteered with the RSPB for 60 years, first joining in 1966 during a break from his A levels as part of Operation Osprey, protecting the first pair of ospreys to breed in the UK in over a century
- Hewitt dedicated much of his conservation work to the cirl bunting, a red-listed finch-like species once nearly lost in the UK, managing habitats at Labrador Bay and Ashill nature reserves in Devon and participating in the red-backed shrike project on Dartmoor
- The cirl bunting rebounded to more than 1,000 pairs recorded in the RSPB's 2016 national survey, concentrated in south Devon with a reintroduced population in Cornwall
- Hewitt combined his conservation work with a 30-year career at Barclays, taking on various RSPB volunteer roles during school holidays and weekends while volunteers guarded osprey nests 24 hours a day against egg thieves
- RSPB volunteering development officer Tim Hughes said "few individuals can demonstrate such sustained commitment, breadth of impact and enduring legacy" as Hewitt, who credited his work with his mental wellbeing
Why it matters: Six decades of unpaid, individual conservation effort helped lift the cirl bunting from near-extinction in the UK to more than 1,000 recorded pairs by 2016 — a tangible species-recovery outcome tied directly to sustained volunteer commitment at RSPB reserves.
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