Thursday 30 August 2012

Rangers surprised by celebrity arrival at nature reserve

Following on from the weekend's Countryfile episode and the Guardian article, we were in the newspapers agan this week with a different story.

This one involved a celebrity visiting us back in April in a somewhat unusual mode of transport, a helicopter!

Ranger Joe was alerted to the low-flying aircraft which then landed east of the lifeboat house. We always make a note of any low-flying aricraft as this can potentially cause disturbance to wildlife, which is particularly sensitive during the bird breeding season or when wildfowl are present in huge numbers in the winter.

Joe, who is one of the four staff living on the Point, was immediately on hand to speak to the pilot and saw that Jay Kay from Jamiroquai was one of the passengers. They were very polite and apologetic and took off again. We later sent a polite letter explaining our concerns and they phoned to apologise.

Fortunately as this happened when birds were still arriving, there was no impact on the breeding birds and the helicopter didn't leave a footprint.

It goes to show though how important it is to have people in the right place to best look after the wildlife and precious landscape.

A rangers work is always varied and you never know what may happen.

Amazingly 5 months later this story was exciting enough to be picked up the Daily Mirror and the Daily Star!

http://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/news/rare_visitor_shocks_rangers_as_jamiroquai_s_jay_kay_lands_helicopter_on_blakeney_point_1_1495986

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jamiroquai-star-jay-kay-ticked-1284490#.UD8_2FIlgEI.twitter

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/269533/A-fair-copter-for-Jay-Kay/

Victoria
Countryside Manager

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