Woodland wildlife ranger experience

Get into nature with this woodland ranger volunteering experience on a Scottish Borders community wildlife project.

This three hour session starts with a guided woodland nature walk led by an experienced wildlife ranger, enjoying the birdsong and identifying some of the many species that live in the wood, including woodpeckers and sparrowhawks. 

We meet in the car park at Selkirk Leisure Centre and head off along the riverside path for Mauldsheugh Wood. Mauldsheugh is our own community wildlife project, where we have been improving the habitat to make it home to a wider range of wildlife.

We’ll use thermal cameras to keep an eye out for the more elusive residents of the wood, such as the roe deer and fox, and check the trail cameras for overnight activity. You never know what you will find - badgers and foxes are regular visitors but we’ve had pine marten and otters on the cameras too.

You’ll help top up the bird feeders to get the best viewing opportunities and visit the nature pond and the riverbank lookout, hoping to catch a glimpse of dippers or even a passing otter.

Then we’ll get you involved in a volunteering project - maybe planting a tree or a shrub, or helping with the important habitat work we do to attract wildlife.

Finally you’ll join a citizen science exercise, monitoring butterflies or bird life to contribute to a research project.

After that you are free to spend as much time as you want revisiting some of the places you’ve seen, armed with all your new knowledge!

We run our nature walks to give more people a chance to enjoy the wildlife of southern Scotland and to help cover the cost of our community nature and wildlife projects. All profits go back into the community interest company to enable us to continue to operate our Mauldsheugh Wood community wildlife project, along with nature clubs, school visits and collaborations with other community groups.