Everything to do with reserve management is varied, especially the weather! That being said, I wanted to talk about a typically varied week of work with our trainee team to give an idea of what we get up to. The week I describe below was earlier this month and saw temperatures soar to around 24 degrees!

On Tuesday, Jake and I travelled to Monkwood, near Sinton Green, to meet two of our reserve volunteers and deal with a few fallen and dangerous trees over the nature trail. We don't undertake forestry work in spring but do need to deal with trees that pose a risk to visitors. Between the four of us we made short work of the trees, created habitat piles with them and left the paths clear; Jake and I thanked our volunteers before saying goodbye; it was a real joy to work with some of our volunteers again.

After a short lunch break, we set to repairing a section of fencing that had fallen around one of the coppice coups in the woodland, designed to deter deer from grazing on the regenerating coppice stools. We installed eight posts, re-attached the fence and left the coup secure. (Coppicing, by the way, is an age-old woodland management tool that involves cutting down trees almost to ground level - this allows in light to the ground floor and, because the trees grow back, it ensures a variety of differently aged trees throughout the woodland). All in all a really nice day of smaller jobs in a gorgeous place. Some of the sights we saw on this day included a sparrowhawk chasing a blackbird through the woodland and a nuthatch landing in our path as we carried our tools back!