I stood transfixed across the lake, binoculars pinned to my eyes, mouthing as I counted. I was at Coombe Country Park, counting nests, and attempting to count the number of young herons inside as they periodically popped their heads up.

Monitoring the herons was my first proper volunteering role in conservation, and I loved it. I remember first handing in my handwritten application form and being asked to come and have a chat with the manager to see what I could get involved in. An urban child, it soon became apparent that I knew little about birds other than the common garden varieties, and the manager took me out onto the park and started to train me up. At the time, I was an academic in psychology, and would get up early once a week to watch the herons before commuting over to work. I was doing an online evening course in Ecology and Conservation and had not yet admitted to myself that a change in career was on the cards.

The beauty of the heron in flight with its slow, powerful wingbeats as it makes its characteristic “frank” call, combined with its serene stillness as it waited to spear a fish on the bank, soon made me realise I had been missing out. One time I got so into my counting that I ended up falling straight into the lake and had to return shame-faced and covered in wet mud!

The time that the manager took to show me the wonders of the park and the knowledge and confidence I was gaining from my evening tutor made the world of difference to me, and helped set me up on my new path as a conservationist. I got the survey bug and soon started surveying for other flora and fauna there, including wildflowers and reptiles (really hoping for the return of the adder!) After a night of surveying moths at Ryton Wood with our resident Warwickshire moth expert, I signed up to survey them with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, who then took me under their wing and hosted an internship I had applied for from the People’s Trust for Endangered Species. This gave me the experience to apply for a full-time position at the Trust, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I still go and see the herons from time to time and feel a special connection with their majestic beauty. Without them and my inspirational mentors, my life would have turned out very different.