My Wild Island Life

Living on Brownsea Island is a dream realised for lifelong wildlife enthusiast Nicki Tutton

- Nicki Tutton

LIVING on an island is the stuff dreams. The excitement of a boat trip, followed by a day of discovering the wildlife of Brownsea Island is an adventure in itself. But for a handful of people from the National Trust, the island’s owners, and Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT), who manage the nature reserve there, this is their everyday life. Nicki Tutton is a true ‘islander’, having worked on Brownsea for 12 years for the National Trust and also as a DWT volunteer. She was upgraded to a full-time island resident in 2015, and is assistant warden for DWT.

The rhythm of island living is dictated by the seasons. With summer, comes long sunny days when visitors flock to the island, but the dark days of winter are a stark contrast to this. “It takes a fair bit of adjustment to live here. I moved here during October, the tail end of the season which meant the island closed not long after,” Nicki recalls. “Being here every day without members of the public visiting or our daytime volunteers coming onto the island was a bit odd at first, but I soon got used to the quiet.”