May has been an interesting month on the reserve, with lots of different management and lots of wildlife to look out for. Our meadows are just starting to come into their own and will soon be in full bloom. There are lots of orchids to be looking out for at the moment. Common twayblades (below left) have been found in an area of the reserve they've never been recorded before and our grass verges are stuffed with bee orchids, especially on Magpie Walk.

Our assessment and refreshment of the fencing around the reserve continues as we paint and replace things which need it. We'll be continuing with this work over the next few months as all of the hides get their yearly facelift. We've also had a contractor in with a post thumper to drive large posts in where they've failed (above right). Being an ex-quarry the ground at Whisby can be very unpredictable and difficult when it comes to fencing; these large turning and straining posts need to go a long way into the ground to cope with the amount of strain that's going to be on them. Whilst we can put these in by hand and brace them with aggregate it is much more efficient to get someone with a machine to install these posts. The contractor put in 10 of these posts for us in a day, saving us over a week of work.

We have a few populations of common lizards around the nature reserve. Those who follow the Whisby Facebook page will have seen that they were very active and visible around the rail bridge last summer, and they have been spotted out and about in the same area this spring. But the best place to see them used to be basking on piles of black stones in the area towards the bypass. Over the last few years they've been seen less and less sunning themselves on these rocks so we decided to do something about it. We've cleared bramble and other vegetation from the pile and hope that we will spot lizards in this area over the coming months.

After the very wet winter and spring there have been areas on the path network which have badly flooded - this never lasts for long and things quickly return to normal. However we have started work to fill in the worst potholes on the north side of Grebe Lake. By sweeping out the mud, filling the hole with crushed limestone and then running over it with the compactor plate we hope to improve the path in this area. It's slow work as we need a window of dry weather to do it properly - filling in a pothole that's full of water just means we fill it with mud, which isn't ideal!