It is often said that early spring flowers are mostly yellow and there is some truth in this, at Blashford Lakes just now it is certainly the most frequent flower colour.

One advantage of working outdoors for a lot of the time is that you do get to see a lot of wildlife.

For the last few days it has been feeling distinctly spring-like and I have been expecting the first sand martin, little ringed plover and singing chiffchaff of the spring.

I was asked recently "Why can't you just let nature be nature?" from which I understand the questioner meant, why do we do management on nature reserves?