Assistant Warden, Greg Lee

Hello everyone! My name is Greg and I’m a 24-year old nature enthusiast of Gloucestershire origin. I might be a familiar name already to some of you, having been fortunate enough to have a 3-month internship at the Observatory in March-June 2019 as part of my university placement year (spending 6 months previously at Durlston Country Park). I enjoyed the experience of the day-to-day life at a Bird Observatory, experiencing migration first-hand, and interacting with people with the same passion. Having been an admirer of nature from childhood, it was incredible seeing the movements of birds so rapidly change, particularly catching up with coastal birds that a landlubber doesn’t frequently see. In addition, seeing the cartons in the moth-trap covered in all sorts of species including local specialities and migrants, observing dragonflies of various species frenetically darting en masse around the Recording Area, and huge numbers of orchids growing was a really captivating experience. As photography is a side hobby of mine, I enjoyed capturing all the aspects of my placement, some of these pictures still providing use now!

Since my time at Sandwich, I’ve graduated in wildlife conservation and undertaken an MSc by research degree using data kindly provided by the Observatory, looking at the effects of weather patterns on moth migration and vagrancy in birds. After leaving academia, I also enjoyed an internship at Spurn Bird Observatory in the autumn of 2021, where I helped lead guided walks, carried out daily transects and took part in activities such as moth-trapping demonstrations to the general public whilst also observing some excellent rarities (finding one or two myself!). As well as this I’ve led some tours for Naturetrek helping to showcase the best wildlife of certain regions to guests and helped with local events for the Gloucestershire Moth Group.

After my internship at Sandwich, I broadened my interest in nature to include a variety of different groups including orchids, butterflies, dragonflies and chiefly moths, recording several interesting species of the latter for Gloucestershire as well as attempting to see as many species of all the others as possible. I’m extremely pleased to be back working at Sandwich Bay and observing the huge diversity of wildlife helping to contribute good sightings of my own as well as project my passion in nature into educating and inspiring people of all ages through various formats. I very much look forward to helping with moth-trapping, surveying, ringing and so much more in my tenure, maybe I can finally catch up with a Honey Buzzard or Pallas’s Warbler. It’s going to be a pleasure meeting you all!

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