2.12 Lucy Groves: The Creativity Behind the White Stork Project
Hello lovely you! Welcome to series 2 episode 12 of Prompted by Nature. How are you this week?
This week’s episode is my final conversation episode of 2020 although next week the tables will be turned when my amazing friend Priya Shah will be interviewing me, which should be interesting, as she’ll be asking me the questions that I usually ask my guests! I hope you’ll join us for that!
But onto this week’s episode. Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking with the wonderful Lucy Groves of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.
Lucy is a conservation biologist working on a range of projects across Sussex and has an interest in animal behaviour, movement ecology and nature connection. Lucy joined Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in 2019 as Project Officer for the White Stork Project which is a multi-partner project aiming to restore the White Stork to Britain after a 600 year absence.
Based at the Knepp Rewilding project in West Sussex, Lucy is responsible for coordinating partner organisations and release sites, post-release monitoring of the storks including movement data from GPS tracking and collation of sighting reports, as well as delivering public engagement using the emblematic White Stork to drive nature connection in local and wider communities.
A self-confessed nature nerd, small mammal lover, thread painter and Mum to a Little Owl, she is happiest when outdoors searching for British wildlife.
In this conversation, we discuss:
How she found her way into conservation biology
Her experience of burnout and work-related mental health issues and how this led her to her work at Knepp
Her connect to animals and fascination with animal behaviour
How she came to be involved with the White Stork Project
What the WSP involves
The wonder of instinct in animals
How she stays inspired
How she stays motivated and how her experience with lyme’s disease forced to reassess her priorities in times of tiredness
Her hope for the future and what her journey has taught her
I first found out about Lucy work on BBC Springwatch when they showcased the white stork project at Knepp. I started following Lucy on social media and an absolutely fascinated by the journey of the storks and the work that Lucy and her team are doing. It was so lovely to hear more about the project and the wonderful things that we can do to help heal our planet and its wild inhabitants.
You can find Lucy on Instagram and Twitter @lucyinthewild and can read all about her work with the white stork project on www.whitestorkproject.org
As always I’m over on Instagram @prompted.by.nature and on the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can sign up to my weekly online nature writing sessions, book in for any of my 2021 in-person outdoor writing and creativity sessions and retreats and buy gift vouchers for the nature lover in your life! And if you enjoy the podcast, please do share with your communities by sharing on social media or in real life. And please pop in a review and five stars wherever you’re listening if you can - every little helps get these voices and conversations out there.
Remember to stick around until the end when I’ll give you a little insight into the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode.
Happy listening and I’ll speak to you after.
———————————
Wasn’t that so inspiring I hope you enjoyed it! In the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode, we’ll be taking inspiration from the storks and creating a piece guided by their journey. As always, I’m sending you lots of love. Happy writing and I’ll speak to you soon!
—————————————————————————
Welcome to this meditation and writing prompt inspired by my conversation with Lucy Groves of the White Stork Project.
This prompt is a little different to what we usually do. I’ll be talking you through the prompt and then we’ll have the pleasure of listening to a White Stork greeting ceremony for a few of minutes to help get your centred and inspired to create a piece of work based on whatever comes up for you as a result.
I’d also recommend opening the white stork project website and look at the migration map on their ‘news’ page. The link is in the show notes for ease but you can find it at www.whitestorkproject.org/news and it’s the entry for 13th October 2020.
As I mentioned, this prompt is all about the storks that Lucy spoke about and her work with them. Here are some ideas if you listening to the soundscape and struggle with getting started:
An ‘ode to the Storks’
A piece entitled ‘Flying with the Storks’
Research wildlife species that are native to your region or country and the initiatives working with these species and write something inspired by your findings
Based on this research, why not envision a world in which these species live in abundance alongside humans? What would this world be like? How would it differ from our own?
Listen to the soundscape and free write along with it
These are just a few ideas, just see where the prompt and the ideas brought up in the episode take you. As always, don’t judge your creativity before you’re started and enjoy the process!
I’m going to play the soundscape for three minutes and then it’ll fade out for you to either listen to again to start creating!
Happy writing!
